Fragile Wonderland
by Mirror Contagion
Summary: Marisa Kirisame awakens on the steps of Hakurei Shrine with dire wounds and an utter lack of recollection as to how she got there. What happened to Marisa? What's happening to Gensokyo? And, most importantly.. What's happening to Reimu? A rather dark and heavy fanfic in parts, so be warned if you're just looking for slice-of-life stuff.
1. Rude Awakening

The name "Reimu Hakurei" was the first thing that came to the mind of Kirisame Marisa. In fact, nothing else was there at first. She took no note of the pain racing through her back, the stiffness of her arms to the point of almost being unable to move them. Not even the darkness that was currently making up her world. It was a dreadful feeling- one of absolute terror unlike which she had never felt before. Like waking up in a cold sweat from a dream in which one saw something they love perish. Marisa, however, couldn't recall dreaming any such thing, no more than she could sit up and declare that she had awakened.

Pain hit her like a freight train, and the initial sound which escape her lips was inevitably a pained groan. Her eyelids slid open, and only scalding, blurry white filled them for what was likely seconds, but felt like an eternity. Above her, a darkened cloudy sky swirled and churned. A storm looked well underway... But it hadn't quite burst down upon her yet. Off to the edge of her vision, a roof could be seen with familiar Shinto dressings hanging down. Though her thoughts were a scrambled mess of pain and confusion, it sunk in easy enough that this was Hakurei Shrine. The witch girl's mind began to race, becoming more focused and lucid now at the sight of the familiar setting.

_"All right..." _she whispered in a strained, bemused voice within her brain. Somehow, even her internal voice sounded beaten up, _"I... Have no idea what's going on, but it looks like I'm at Reimu's... I just need to get my bearings straight and figure out what the hell is happening."_ Marisa hardly felt like she was in the shape to stand, so she quite openly welcomed a nice, peaceful sitdown. The fog in her mind was slowly clearing bit by bit, and she welcomed the opportunity to try and gather what she could be doing here, and how she could possibly be feeling so hurt.

_"I think that a hangover is out of the question." _she mused; she was no stranger to staying up too late drinking, including with Reimu...But this felt more like she had been beaten silly with a sake gourd rather than trying to work the last few drops out of one. And then, there was always the alternative explanation of danmaku... She and Reimu had often practiced out front of Hakurei Shrine. Could she have taken a bit too much of a beating? Or, more likely than that judging from the pain, fallen off her broom somehow in the midst of the fight? That seemed to be a slightly more reasonable explanation to the situation that correlated with the current state her body was in... But why, then could she remember absolutely no danmaku duel?

_"None of this makes any sense, dammit." _The witch finally exhaled. Then, there was no helping it; the only thing she could really do was try and find Reimu. Maybe the shrine maiden could tell her what was going on? No, not maybe, surely; it wasn't like she could have somehow missed the injured girl laying spread-out on the stairs of her shrine.

Marisa gritted her teeth together; she knew she was going to regret this, but she had to get up. If not to find Reimu and figure out how in Gensokyo she had somehow managed to end up laid up like this, then to get out of what appeared to be an oncoming storm. She moved her arms upwards and attempted to lean forward.. And all at once, her body screamed in protest, with her quickly following verbally, quickly slipping back down, flat on her back.

The witch knew she was hurt, but until she attempted that, she had absolutely no idea how bad. Her head, having felt formerly clear, was now swimming in an ocean of dizzy blurriness... Had something been agitated during that motion? She clenched her fingers together into a fist out of frustration at all of this... And found that they felt slippery, which sent an ice-cold chill down her spine even in her dazed state. Was it blood? Was that blood on her hands? Is that why she felt dazed at the moment, because she was currently bleeding out on the steps of Hakurei Shrine? How did she get here? What did this to her? How could Reimu just leave her out here in this state? For that matter, where was Reimu? Was she safe?

So many questions... But Marisa was feeling far too tired to answer them. Her fingernails clawed softly at the wood below her as she weakly writhed. Despite this rude and confusing awakening, she was already feeling sleepy again. And, furthermore, she was fully aware that if she currently had an open, bleeding wound, this might not be a sleep she would wake up from. Was this really the end? Marisa had so many more books to "borrow" and treasures to snatch. She wanted to hold on, but, she was far too exhausted to care at this point. No words were leaving her mouth, not even sounds of pain although she could feel her throat and tongue moving to try and construct them.

_ "I'm gonna die, I guess." _she surrendered. She never thought she would go this way, though. Silently? She always figured that she'd either burn out in a blaze of glory, or at the very least cowardly fleeing from it to the very end in hopes of accumulating as much treasure as she possibly could before it happened. Who would have known she'd just wake up and it would...just happen?

"Marisa!" a voice called to her. It was from off to the side a distance. Initially, she thought it was some sort of hallucination, but it sounded twice more.. And it seemed so real, coming from somewhere she couldn't see, even if she had the strength to turn her head.. Her eyes were closing. Slowly, but surely. It wouldn't be long now... Trampling footsteps... The sound of horrified gasps. It took a brief moment for Marisa to work out who was coming towards her, but by that point, she was already passing out.

_"Alice?" _she asked herself inside of her hazy mind as oblivion encroached her and swallowed it up. There was nothing anymore.

* * *

If you made it to the end of this chapter, thank you for glancing, as well as sticking to it through my rather sub-par writing. I'm actually turning this story into a text adventure game, but I figured it might be fun to use at least one path as a story for my long-unused account, minus the bad ends. Chapters will likely be generally pretty short, but not as short as this one most likely.

I should have about two or three more chapters ready soon. Please leave comments on how to improve my writing and characterization, I _love _getting feedback about how to better myself because I am not confident at all of my skills.


	2. The House of Margatroid

The next time Marisa Kirisame woke, it was much less painful... And slightly less confusing. Her eyes fluttered open, focusing a little bit more quickly this time... Taking in the ceiling above her. She was inside.. And furthermore, simply from the architecture, rather quickly realized exactly where she was.

"...You're awake." the voice of Alice Margatroid spoke quietly to her side. Turning her head slowly, she came face to face with her; the familiar girl who lived not too far away from her own cottage in the Forest of Magic, who used her magic to construct and control dolls. She was dressed as Marisa commonly saw her- clad in a western-style dress not altogether unlike her own, but much more intricately sewn and appearing a lot more pricey, short red hair adorned with a red hairband that she didn't think she'd ever seen her without... The dollmaker was looking the witch up and down studiously... In a way that was a little bit out of the ordinary. She seemed.. Unsure of something. Marisa, however, just tried to put it out of her mind.

"Alice, I..." She was at a loss for words for a moment.. But, soon after, looked down at her midsection, from which the immense pain had erupted earlier; Alice seemed to have changed her into some night clothes, which she tugged the top of up a bit. Tightly wrapped around her stomach were white bandages. They looked clean, and furthermore, fresh. Alice must have had to change them at least once... All at once, without even being fully clear of the situation, Marisa felt rather guilty. As much of a snark as she could often times be, suddenly she felt like she had been a massive burden for Alice. She lowered her head.. Her messy blonde hair hiding her gaze for a moment, "...Thank you."

The dollmaker raised an eyebrow at the apology... But seemed a little bit more grounded, that inquisitive glance seemingly satisfied for now, although it still bothered Marisa for some reason. She took a deep breath and sat back down in the red-cushioned chair beside the bed, sitting her grimoire in her lap, "It's fine... Though I won't say it was easy. It took quite a bit of healing magic in addition to almost as much conventional care. Humans are a lot more difficult to patch up than dolls, you know." Marisa could imagine.. Dolls didn't have all those sensitive parts inside of them.

"But.. I mean.. What happened to me?" Marisa shifted her body to face Alice... She felt remarkably sore, but it was like having a stubbed toe in comparison to how she had felt at the shrine earlier. When that question was asked, though, Alice was taken mildly aback.

"You're asking me? Marisa... I found you with a hole punched in your stomach in front of the Hakurei shrine in the middle of the day. You had lost.. I don't even know how much blood." The witch cringed when Alice brought that up; she thought as much, but.. She had a hole in her? What on earth had happened to her, "When I saw you there, I quite nearly had a heart attack... I.. I mean.." Her fingers curled daintily around her grimoire.. She was visibly upset, though as composed as she was she didn't allow it to be displayed much in her voice beyond a drop in volume, "...Everyone had been thinking you were dead."

There was a long silence. Marisa, at first, thought Alice had misspoke and meant to refer to everyone's reaction after she had been found... But the human-turned-youkai dollmaker made absolutely no effort to correct herself. It looked like she was holding back tears.. And, to her credit was doing an amicable job and if it had been someone who knew Alice less than Marisa, it would have gone unnoticed. Under most any other circumstance, she would have at least tried to comfort her somehow... After all, it wasn't often Alice let down her icy demeanor. But this came as too much of a shock for her to properly do so. "What do you mean?" Marisa finally managed to ask hoarsely.

It took a few moments for Alice to respond, but when she did, the weight of her words smashed into Marisa like a runaway carriage, leaving her silenced. "Marisa.. Before I found you, it had been an entire year since anyone had seen you at all."

Alice looked to be in some strange state between overjoyed and terribly shaken. Meanwhile, Marisa was downcast. The impact of Alice's words had hit her hard, and a mixture of fear and guilt stewed in her brain... But more immediate to her, perhaps uncharacteristically, was the reaction of Alice. She had never seen the dollmaker this distraught... Let alone over her. Usually she just got pissed off.

She rose up to try and get closer to Alice, but as soon as she was on her feet, she felt her legs crumple beneath her, falling to her knees with an irritated grunt; they were numb. It felt like she hadn't been standing on them for days (or was that a year?) at least. And, contrary to her original purpose, it was Alice who moved forward, helping Marisa up. The dollmaker's touch was soft on her sore body as she was carefully brought to her feet.

Internally, Marisa was furious. She felt bad for Alice, yes; that was prominent. But there was also a fury at being left in the dark so badly up until now. And there was some, in addition, to still having to be helped even when she made up her mind to try the other way around. Words would have to suffice.

"Thank you.. For patching me up, Alice. I was sure I was going to die right before you found me, y'know." the witch sighed. She knew Alice was looking at her funny without even peeling her gaze off from the floor; being openly grateful like this was a bit out of character for her. Then again.. She couldn't exactly say she had ever owed her life to anyone before except...

"It's all right, Marisa." Alice broke her out of her thoughts. Her voice was much more evened out; it seemed she had composed herself, and the witch's attempt at comforting her had failed; Alice was strong enough not to need that sort of thing, she reminded herself, "It just.. Concerns me. You've been gone for an entire year, Marisa. Where on earth have you been?"

"I..." The witch shut her eyes tight, trying to remember. Under normal circumstances, she'd likely crack a joke, but she rather felt like this was no laughing matter. Still, unlike most, she was mainly annoyed that somehow her brain had misplaced an entire year of events rather than terrified, "I don't know. I honestly can't remember anything, but it's not.. Amnesia or anything, y'know? I remember everyone... I just..."

"What's the last thing you remember?" Alice asked, holding up one hand and flicking her fingers in a motion familiar to Marisa; sure enough, one of Alice's dolls, the blue-dressed Shanghai, fluttered into the room, floating thanks to the dollmaker's magic and smiling cheerfully as always. In its hands was a fancy tea set on a platter, from which Alice poured two cups and handed one to Marisa, who had thankfully settled down to sit on the edge of the bed. The witch nodded thankfully, wracking her brain once more.

"I..." she inhaled a whiff of tea, gulping it down.. And then her eyes grew wide. The wheels began to turn in her head.

* * *

The smell of sulfur, and blazing stone...A thick smell flooded back to Marisa's nose, like a memory she could still feel herself in the middle of. She remembered flying above an ocean of raging flames... The intense heat striking a feeling of exhilaration in her once again. It felt as if the heat could have burst her broom into flames at any moment, and yet she remembered.. Laughing. And fighting. She was having fun as flames licked at her heels viciously, and explosions tore outwards in the air, greedily swallowing up what space wasn't taken up by the inferno

And at the heart of it all, a dark-haired woman with black feathery wings, and a massive cannon grafted to her arm. Her eyes terrifying and wide, burning with absolute insanity as blast after blast tore out of her weapon. Those eyes... Those childish, and yet terrifyingly sinister, eyes. Getting larger and larger as she grew closer and closer.

And then, suddenly, she was no longer on her broom. Suddenly, she was flying backwards in a way quite unintentional. There would be no dodging bullets in this state. There would be no fancy tricks, no Master Spark... There wouldn't be anything except an inevitable rise.. And then, she would begin to fall. And as she fell, there was a scream, which felt as if it stretched on into infinity; a scream not at all her own. It belonged to Reimu.

_"Marisa!"_

* * *

"Well, that certainly does make sense." Alice muttered quietly, rubbing her temple as Marisa finished recounting her last recollection. She poured herself a second cup of tea. Normally, she would have her dolls do it, but at the moment it seems that she was fine with doing the work herself.

"Whaddaya mean?" Marisa inquired.

"The last time anyone had heard of you, it was when you and Reimu went down into the underground to solve the incident with the Hell Raven." As Alice spoke, memories of the event were starting to flood back into her mind; the fight through the Oni town, the satori in the mansion. She nodded as she digested this information slowly. Alice would know that well; she had been in contact with her during the incident, along with fellow magician Patchouli Knowledge, and Nitori Kawashiro the kappa.

"So when you say that's the last anyone heard of me.. I didn't come back? Did we win? Did Reimu beat the crow?" the witch asked, genuinely curious. The question crept up on her rather fast after what she could recollect had returned to her. She wasn't asking what she was really thinking, due to the fact that she had been found lying at the shrine and Reimu had made no effort to help... Of course that couldn't be true, could it? Reimu had to be fine, right?

But when she looked up, Alice's face had soured noticeably into a rather sullen expression. Marisa's heart sank in an instant until the dollmaker finally spoke: "She defeated her and returned... And she told us that Utsuho had killed you."

Marisa was rendered silent at this... So, Reimu had been put through the same experience as Alice? She wondered how Reimu, the lackadaisical, lazy shrine maiden... She huffed, either way, leaning back and looking up at the ceiling... Part of her not being able to wait to see the shrine maiden's face when she saw she was alive. Eventually, she responded: "I remember.. Falling off my broom. And Reimu screaming. Nothing afterwords."

It was Alice's turn to be silent. She snapped her fingers, and again Shanghai returned.. This time, accompanied by a matching red-dressed doll that Marisa recognized as Hourai. The pair collected the tea set, and fluttered off. The dollmaker crossed her legs; it looked like there was something on her mind, but she was unsure of what to say. Marisa, meanwhile, was feeling quite a bit more cheery... She felt like everything was all right with the world... She just had to spread the world that she hadn't, in fact, perished (likely to the dismay of several people she had taken upon herself to eternally borrow things from).

"That isn't everything, though. Marisa.. I'm not entirely sure you're going to want to hear this part, but... Things have.. Changed since you were gone."

"...Changed? How?" Marisa frowned.

"It's Reimu, Marisa." Alice finally sighed. The words left her lips in a very slow manner, Alice's mouth seeming like it was having a hard time molding around what she was saying. Marisa, meanwhile, shot back quite quickly to her.. Perhaps a little bit too fast. She wasn't angry, she was just worried. Bit by bit, that happy feeling she had been holding was starting to fall to pieces.

"What do you mean 'it's Reimu,' you just said she came back fine!"

"When Reimu came back, she was different. She was incredibly upset at first. The communicator devices we had been using were destroyed in the battle against the crow, so we weren't able to figure out what happened. All we knew was that you had apparently died...," again Alice's face had taken that sour expression, and her slender fingers gently played with a lock of hair in a nervous manner for a moment. Marisa listened, already having a bad feeling about this. That didn't sound characteristic of Reimu at all; typically, she was beyond open whenever she managed to solve an incident in hopes of getting more visitors to her shrine. And as Alice continued, her fears were not particularly put to rest: "Then, a month later, an incident occurred in the human village with a pair of youkai getting into a fight. Reimu came, and..." she paused momentarily, taking in a deep breath. Alice knew what she was about to say wasn't something Marisa was going to want to listen to at all.

"...Two youkai got into a fight, and Reimu showed up to settle it. She completely ignored the spellcard rules, and killed both of them. Both body, and soul."

Marisa's blood ran cold at the explanation. Alice shivered a little as well, having said it. Both girls set in silence for a few moments, before Marisa finally spoke up:

"No damn way." She hissed. It was a deep snarl as Marisa's fists clenched. Alice looked up, a bit surprised at the seething tone of the witch, who was currently beginning to slip out of the bed, once again getting on her feet.. Bare toes against the fine wooden floor of Alice's cottage. Marisa's stance was wobbly, but a little more steadily this time.

"I know it's hard to believe, Marisa. I didn't want to believe it myself, but.. it doesn't end there. It.. Marisa! Wait!" the witch was at the doorway of the bedroom, not even listening to a thing that Alice was saying.

"There's no way Reimu would kill just to settle a stupid thing like that. Not Reimu." she growled, staggering into Alice's Den. Dolls were flying to and fro, many turning to face Marisa as she stumbled in. Slowly, the feeling of her legs were returning, but at the moment she had a bit of a zombie gait. It would likely be a bit before she managed to properly walk around like she normally did. Alice followed behind her with a look of resignation on her face- she was upset, but not particularly surprised either, so she couldn't particularly bring herself to be too angry at Marisa. The witch looked left and right in the den, her yellow eyes darting along the walls and furniture, "Where's my broom?"

"Where are you going, Marisa? And in pajamas of all things." Alice asked with a bit of weariness. Nevertheless, she pointed to her front door- the trusty wooden broom which Marisa flew upon stood carefully next to it.

"To the shrine. I'm going to see Reimu, just to prove you wrong. This crap isn't funny." she huffed, snatching the broom and opening the door.. Stepping out carefully into the sunlight, still barefoot and pajama-clad. It was warm out, so she could hardly complain, sternly looking up at the sky. Alice continued to follow her, a look of concern on her face as the witch mounted her broom.. Slowly kicking off of the ground, her legs aching in protest with the motion, but soon at east as she began to hover off of the ground a short distance.

"Marisa..." Alice sighed quietly. The witch expected her to stop her, but no such thing came out of the dollmaker's mouth. Instead, it was a quiet warning, "Be careful."

Marisa didn't look back to her as her broom lifted her up above the clearing of the Forest of Magic in which Alice's cottage peacefully sat, and she began to fly over the treetops. She knew she must have seemed ungrateful, but this upset her too much to just take at face value. Alice didn't have a reason to lie to her, of course. Why would she? But Marisa was sure there was more to this story than met the eye. There must have been a misunderstanding.. Or maybe someone framed Reimu. Either way, there was just no way that this could all be possible.


	3. Confrontation at Hakurei Shrine

As Marisa soared above the treeline of the dense Forest of Magic, she realized after a few moments that her house wasn't too far from Alice's. In fact, it was more or less on the way to the shrine if her current trajectory was correct.

"I could get some clothes..." She muttered to herself; these pajamas weren't revealing or anything, just long cotton pants and a shirt with rather billowy sleeves. But, still... She could hopefully get a pair of trousers and a blouse if she stopped by her place. That ought to make a better impression on Reimu instead of looking like she had just woken up, right?

It was only a few minutes later when she reached her home in the forest. It was a bit smaller than Alice's cottage, and in a denser area than usual... And, it wasn't looking particularly wonderful today either, causing Marisa to frown. Vines had encroached across the surface of the outer walls, and the windows couldn't even be seen through, they were so thick with dust. Normally, she cleaned the encroaching foliage off of her house every few months, but...

"_But I've been gone for a year, haven't I?"_ she sighed. If she didn't believe it before, looking at the state of her house really drove it home. She touched her broom down just outside the front door, stepping off of it and carefully clasping her hand against the heavy wooden door. The once-quite immaculate (maybe the only immaculate part of her house, which was often in at least _some _variety of minor disrepair) barrier now had paint peeling from it, rendering it rather unattractive... However, that did not halt her from opening it wide. Immediately, her nose was filled with a veritable invasion force of dust, causing a few sneezes and a glare of annoyance.

The witch quickly gathered, as her eyes scanned the house, that no one had stepped foot in here for quite some time. Books were strewn out here and there, all sporting white coats of dust as if it were their newly-issued dress code. A bowl of fruit was sitting by her usual easychair in front of the fireplace, long past a stage of being ripe with rot, to the point where they no longer even stank; how could they when there was little left that even the flies would touch? This was going to take hours and hours of cleaning to get suitable once more... And Marisa despised cleaning.

Making her way past the empty fireplace and the darkened hallway leading to her room, she pushed her way inside... Giving a little sigh. Her bedsheets hadn't been spared from the dirty march of time that had taken precedence in the house. Nevertheless... Dirty clothes were better than being out and about in bedclothes. She hardly had the option of asking where the clothes she had been wearing when she were found were, it would have ruined her storming out of the house.

And yet, when she opened the sliding closet door... She found it entirely empty. No shirts, no skirts, no trousers... Nothing from the witch's wardrobe remained. Whoever had taken them had even taken the hooks she had them hanging up on. Marisa stared, puzzled... Someone _had _been in here. But why had they taken her clothes, and not something.. Valuable? Like the stack of mon sitting on her nightstand? Or the expensive alchemical equipment on the desk behind her across the room?

Either way, her plans were derailed. Marisa left her house having only gained a feeling of dejection at the undeniable proof that, through some circumstance, she had indeed lost a year of her life somehow.

* * *

Marisa had reached the shrine by midday. It was warm out, but the whole atmosphere of the situation (in addition to the billowy pajamas) had left her feeling, overall, a little bit chilled as her broom weaved beneath the large Shinto gate at the top of the many steps that lead to Hakurei Shrine.

"Ey, Reimu!" Marisa called out as she slipped off her broom. Her legs were finally beginning to feel like they were "hers" again, rather than wobbly noodles. Though her stride was still a bit off, she slowly made her way forwards towards the shrine itself. Her call went unanswered, nonetheless. It was quiet, which wasn't unusual for Hakurei Shrine... But it was a different kind of quiet. The birds were not chirping, the wind was not blowing... It made her incredibly uncomfortable.

"Reimu..?" She called again, though this time was a bit more quiet. Before long, she was standing in front of the shrine itself. Inside, supposedly, the god of Hakurei Shrine was housed. Marisa had been within only a few times; she usually stuck to the house behind it, in which Reimu lived. However, it struck her that this was where she woke up before being found by Alice. A few short plank steps lead up to the area where she had been lying.. Just outside of the entrance.

It was entirely devoid of blood, despite the wound Alice had said that she was sporting. Unless the dollmaker had decided to clean up after helping Marisa, that meant that Reimu must have indeed been around since she was found... How long ago? Marisa had no idea how long she was under Alice's care, but the way her body behaved it must have been a few days in the least. The witch grumbled; where could that miko be? She turned around, and gazed at the front area of the shrine for a few moments before her eyes were drawn to a spot that she hadn't really thought about for awhile; the small hokura off to the left of the shrine. It was a piddly-looking thing, she noted, as she slowly approached it; constructed of wood, no larger than a small shack. It didn't even have any steps leading up to it. The doors leading inside were closed, and locked tight; the interior, entirely light-less. Marisa couldn't see even when she pressed her nose to the door of the thing. Hokura were supposed to house spirits, she noted. This one was supposed to house a rather notable one.. At least, to her: Mima.

Mima was a vengeful spirit that was, at some point, sealed within the hokura of Hakurei shrine. That hadn't stopped her from escaping multiple times over her long existence...And one of such times, she had met Marisa as a child, sometime after the blonde witch had run away from home. The ghost took it upon herself to take Marisa under her wing, and teach her how to cast spells. Much of the foundations of Marisa's combat repertoire, she had learned from Mima through hard study and instruction. It was while serving Mima that she originally met, and fought, Reimu.

However, several years ago, Mima vanished. Marisa didn't know why, as Reimu hadn't even bothered to attempt to seal her at that point, as Mima seemed to keep escaping more and more regardless, much to Marisa's pleasure and the shrine maiden's chagrin. She figured that some sort of important business was to be had.. Why else would Mima just disappear?

Giving a soft sigh, Marisa drew herself back from the doors of the hokura; if Mima was in there, she was dormant, and Marisa had no idea how to draw her out. She would be of no use to her right now.

"Reeeeimu.." Marisa called out once again in cupped hands, strolling around the main building of the shrine. If she wasn't in the front area of the shrine, then she must be around back at her house.. Likely drinking tea or being lazy. Marisa strolled quite leisurely; although she was eager to settle this misunderstanding with Reimu, she didn't want to come off as rushed or crazy. She could only imagine how Reimu felt if people were accusing her of such behavior.

However, when she got around to the other side of the main building, she stopped in her tracks, bare toes digging into the grass; There she was. Hakurei Reimu was sitting at a small wooden table that she'd brought out, likely from the shrine storehouse, and set down in front of her house. She was dressed in her usual, elegant shrine maiden attire.. Which abruptly made Marisa feel a lot more silly for rushing out in a pair of Alice's pajamas, as nice and comfy as they were. She was sure her hair was a mess too.. That's probably why Reimu was staring at her, right? Or.. oh, wait, no. She thought Marisa was dead.

Still, Marisa played it off cheerfully; she was sure Reimu had been worried about her, at least somewhat... Though they fought and argued, Marisa considered Reimu one of her best friends in the world. With a laugh, she put one hand on her hip, grinning broadly: "Ey, Reimu. Miss me?"

It wasn't until a good ten or so seconds of silence that Marisa's big smirk fell flat off of her face. Reimu was... Just sort of staring at her. There was no surprise in her eyes, not an ounce... Nor any of the momentary weakness Alice had shown. They were the eyes of someone who was incredibly weary, instead. Marisa thought she could actually see subtle bags beneath them, which was beyond out of the ordinary. Reimu certainly never had a shortage of sleep...

"Um.. Hey, sorry if that wasn't funny..." Marisa sighed, walking forward slowly, feeling quite embarrassed that her joking attitude had earned her precisely zero, "...Look, Alice told me what happened. Y'know, you thinking I died in the underground.. But, I didn't. I can't say I know exactly how I survived, I mean.. But I didn't die. So you can stop worrying about me, you know?"

Reimu abruptly broke her silence with a sharp growl of admonishment: "Do you think this is funny?"

"A-Ah.. Um..." That took Marisa by surprise; she was no stranger to being scolded by Reimu, but the shrine maiden's voice was positively _seething _with hatred at the moment, "Hey, Reimu.. I-I'm sorry, I just.. I dunno, I didn't know what to say! I mean.. it's not like I know what the hell is going on either! I just woke up on the stairs of the shrine, and-"

The shrine maiden picked up her gohei in one hand from the table where it had been sitting next to her teacup. The paper charm at the end of it rippled in a stiff breeze that suddenly seemed to have kicked up to coincide with Reimu's anger...

Reimu's eyes began to shiver an imposing blue, and already, Marisa was feeling like this was a bad idea. She clutched her broom hard in her hand; she had no spellcards on her, and she had no idea where her mini-hakkero was, so retaliation was almost out of the question at the moment unless she wanted to strike at her with her broom.. But why in the world was she already coming up with a battle plan? This was Reimu, her friend. She just had to clear up the current misunderstanding, didn't she?

"Reimu.. Come on.." She took a few steps back as Reimu slowly approached, "Calm down.. Look, I don't know what's going on any more than you do but I didn't mean to piss you off." There was no response to her words as she stalked forwards, "L..Listen! Listen to me! I just wanted to tell you I was safe! A-And prove that you aren't killing anyone like Alice said!"

Abruptly, the shrine maiden froze, lowering her gohei. Marisa heaved a heavy sigh of relief at having finally gotten to Reimu, who was now wearing a somewhat cheerful smile: "Oh, is that it?"

Marisa nodded in rapid succession, "Y-Yeah, of course, why else? I mean... You'd never do something like that. I know that because I know _you _... Y'know?"

"Oh, I know you do.. Or at least, you did." Reimu chuckled.. And then, all-too-quickly, her expression became one of fury once more, "You probably thought using Marisa would get me to quit, didn't you, you disgusting puppeteer?"

"W-What?!" Marisa's eyes widened. Reimu had said.. "quit." Did that mean that what Alice said...? Regardless, there was no time to dwell on it as Reimu was growing closer and closer.

"Well, it's not going to work. Nothing is going to bring me back from the path I chose. Things need to change... Things _have _to change before more die."

"Reimu, dammit, listen to me! _No one_ has to die, especially not me! Now calm down!" Marisa shouted at the top of her lungs, but Reimu was having none of it and she found her back against the rear wall of the shrine. She was going to have to think fast about what to do here, or things were going to turn out ugly. Okay, cruch time. Think!

Somehow, Marisa was beginning to feel that she wasn't getting through to Reimu . Was it the scary, glowing eyes? The steady advancing? The fact that she was reaching for her purification needles? Either way, she quickly realized that she needed to get out of here.

Though her legs were wobbly, she swiftly hopped onto the shaft of her broom. Reimu noticed the motion and had begun to react, but perhaps hadn't expected what she believe to be a fake Marisa to take flight on that broom so realistically. As her arms drew back to toss her needles, the witch shot forward on her broom, blindsiding the miko who tumbled onto her back with an angry shout of surprise.

Marisa didn't stop; she weaved past Reimu's house and doubled back across the sky going back towards the forest of magic. She was flying as fast as she could at the moment.. Which was no small feat, in her top form she was nearly sonic. However, a short distance into the flight, she looked back.. And saw absolutely no sign of Reimu. Her pace slowed significantly, before coming to a stop.

...Nowhere. Reimu was absolutely nowhere to be seen. If that were the case, there was no way she had given chase; Marisa wasn't _that _much faster than her.

Hovering there just outside the forest's reach, the weight of the situation hit Marisa like a ton of bricks; Alice had been right. Reimu Hakurei had returned to the style of purification from the older days... Destruction. Her friend was a murderer, youkai or not. And she had almost killed Marisa.

She gripped the broom beneath her almost painfully tight, her mind full of distress. What was she supposed to do now?

* * *

**I have about one chapter left on my hard drive that's already been written. I'm trying to space out my posting of them to one a day regardless. I hope you're enjoying the story so far!**


	4. Moments of Solace

Marisa returned to Alice's; what else could she really do? The dollmaker had taken care of her up until this point, so she figured she should stick with the friend she had in all of this. A lot of the soreness she had been holding had left her. Still, she didn't feel good... In fact, she felt the opposite of good as she made her way in the front door. Her bare feet were dirty, but she couldn't really do anything beyond try and wipe them a bit on the mat as Alice rounded the corner, roused by the return of Marisa. She had a knowing look on her face; more than likely, she knew exactly how the confrontation was going to go. Still, out of respect for her friend, she resisted saying "I told you so."

"You should have at least waited for me to give you your clothes back. Your dress had a gaping hole in it, and it wasn't easy to patch it up and still make it look nice." Alice sighed. Marisa walked past her, sitting down on the couch even as Shanghai and Hourai hovered over, landing and placing said dress, in addition to Marisa's steepled hat, down beside her. An uncomfortable silence reigned for a good while after that, until Alice finally took a seat on the witch's other side.

"I'm sorry, Marisa. Reimu isn't how you remembered anymore. She isn't how I remember." Alice muttered.. Alice was a common visitor of Hakurei shrine as well, Marisa knew. Not as common as she was, but still, she stopped by for tea now and then, "I tried to tell you before, but.. After she killed those two youkai in the town, Yukari confronted her about it."

"And?" Marisa asked, though it was clear she didn't much want her question answered judging by her tone, as she knew that the response couldn't be good.

"And she revealed that during the fight with Utsuho, Utsuho ignored the spellcard rules and fought lethally. And when she saw that..," Alice paused, moving to correct herself, "Thought that you died, she did the same and the fight ended with Utsuho dead as well. Reimu decided that... That if youkai could decide to ignore the rules like that, then they weren't worth having."

"Youkai have ignored them before.. We just end up beating them." Marisa frowned. Her voice was terribly hollow.

It made Alice frown, and not her typical frown of disapproval. She felt terrible for her friend., "Yes, but this time, it ended in the death of her companion." Alice responded with a huff, and then almost immediately afterwords realized what she implied. It was too late as Marisa began to laugh in disdain.

"So that's it? This is my fault. I get stupid in the middle of a fight and have to go and die, and Reimu decides to go scorched-earth." Marisa said between bitter chuckles. She was trying to keep up that aura of happy-go-lucky fool, but tears were beginning to leave her eyes, and her fists were clenching so hard it felt like her fingernails would breath the skin.

"No, Marisa, it's _not _your fault. Reimu chose the path that she's going down.. And you didn't die, for that matter. " Alice put her hand on the witch's shoulder, which managed to throw her out of her fit. "You're right here in front of me, right? You certainly seemed solid when I found you. More so when I dressed your wounds. And I can feel you right now. "

"What difference does it make..?" Marisa grumbled, looking down once more, "Reimu's trying to protect everyone because I died, or because she thought I died. Either way, I'm the damn heart of it all, aren't I?"

"I don't think so." Alice said.. But not out of sheer comfort. Alice was a logical woman, perhaps too much so at this point, "I think the heart of this is the fact that you're still alive despite all odds, and despite Reimu seeing you die with her own eyes. Why are you here, Marisa? What happened?"

"I don't know! I told you I don't. I remember falling off my broom, Reimu screaming out for me... And then darkness. Next thing I know I'm on the shrine steps with a hole in my gut."

"Be that as it may, that obviously can't be the whole story. Somewhere in that head, I'm sure there's more.. Even if you can't remember it right now. I think that the fact that you're here now, while things have gotten as bad as they have, has to have some sort of importance to all of this."

Marisa was nodding along with Alice; as rambunctious as the witch could be, she was a fan of approaching magic and alchemical matters logically.. And it seemed Alice was proposing some sort of experiment. Or maybe...

"Do you think we could work up a spell to get my memory back?" Marisa suggested. The dollmaker beside her smiled warmly.

"Now you're thinking straight again, Marisa. Or maybe it's thinking straight for once." She tittered. Despite how distraught she was, the witch couldn't help but at least smile a little. No matter how upset she was about Reimu, at least Alice still seemed to be the same.. At least, mostly. She seemed a little more receptive to Marisa... She supposed she couldn't help it. Despite how much Marisa could frustrate Alice, they were comrades, and they had helped each other solve incidents in the past. In the end, despite their differences, they were relaxed around one another. The hangups were just part of the deal.

"So how about it, Marisa?" Alice asked finally. Shanghai landed on one of her shoulders, smiling happily at the witch, nodding, as if to goad her on.

"All right... But tomorrow. It's already getting kind of late, and I don't want to pull an all-nighter, y'know.." Marisa scratched her head, thumbing through her clean clothes beside her, almost wanting to add "_Even if I have just slept for a year, for all I know." _Alice's expression was warm.. And possibly a bit excited at the prospect of getting to solve this mystery. Her friend was alive, and she would get to solve this conundrum... Now, if only they could bring Reimu back to her senses.

Marisa's stomach gave a sudden, unceremonious growl, which caused her to wince and place a hand on it, and Shanghai to fall backwards with a mute yelp and the sudden sound. Alice gave a mild scoff, but it was more out of amusement rather than an arrogant type that she might usually give.

"Ehehe.. Sorry, Alice." Marisa laughed, scratching the back of her head, "I guess I haven't had a proper meal in awhile, eh?"

"That's right. You were unconscious for four days after I found you. I couldn't get you to swallow anything but rice porridge and water. And who knows what was going on before that," she tsked, making Marisa blush a little bit. Had she really been being nursed like that while she was out? Nevertheless, she carefully rose, working some of the wrinkles out of her dress: "I suppose I'll cook up something for the both of us to eat, in that case. In the meantime, why don't you get dressed? You can't walk around in pajamas all day, you know."

That was true... But she was a bit surprised. Alice had never offered to cook for her before. Was the loss of her really that profound? Did she somehow awaken some sort of latent motherliness in Alice Margatroid? Nah. More likely than not, the answer was simple as Alice being a good person, regardless of how cold she could act sometimes. Marisa and Alice were friends, though they didn't always show it. After a few moments of silence, she laughed, earning a quizzical expression from Alice as she rose up off her seat and went to go get changed.

* * *

Awhile later, Marisa emerged from Alice's bedroom, properly garbed once more in her black dress and white undershirt. She was glad it was so warm out; all she had was the shirtsleeve version. Moments after re-emerging, a pleasant smell hit her nostrils from the kitchen; was that Alice's cooking? It smelled delicious... Why was Alice so good at all this girly stuff? Besides the fact that she was a girl, of course. Maybe the question was more "why was Marisa so terrible at them?"

Dawdling into the kitchen, Marisa found Alice hard at work; a loaf of freshly baked bread was sitting a short ways off to the side of her, the source of the wonderful smell that she had been whiffing in. Currently, the dollmaker was washing a fish clean of its preserving salts so that it could be properly cooked. While part of her wanted to walk right up to the bread and grab a hunk due to her hunger, she instead plopped down in a chair in the kitchen, making her presence known with a simple: "Geez, that smells good already."

Alice chuckled, sort of having a feeling that after days of nothing but rice porridge, just about anything would sound good to a hungry person if it was properly cooked. Regardless, she appreciated the compliment, setting aside the cleansed fish. Hourai, the red-dressed doll that seemed to serve as a sort of teammate to Shanghai, promptly scooped it up and hovered over to the already-burning wood stove, placing it inside; despite being a doll, Hourai had no apparent fear of burning. After all, all of Alice's dolls were fire-resistant.

"Can't beat someone waitin' on me like this." Marisa smirked a little bit. Normally, that would have have earned her an open scolding from Alice, but instead the dollmaker recognized it as a good sign more than anything. Marisa getting her snark back meant that her fears about Reimu had been allayed, at least for now. The prospect of their research was a good one; after all, what could two powerful magicians tossing in their hats together not accomplish?

"Don't talk like you're getting _all _of it. We're eating an early dinner to quiet down those rude noises your stomach keeps making." she still huffed; after all, she had to keep up appearances.

The two ate a finely-cooked dinner, although a simple one, and chatted. The issue of Reimu hung over their head all-the-while, but they managed to tear themselves away from it for the time being. Marisa was happy that, despite how forcefully the world had been shaken up, she still had a friend. And Alice.. As always, Alice was happy to have company.

* * *

Alice had opened up one of several thick books on the shelves by the window and was browsing through it now, her dolls free to roam around the room once more now that she was occupied and didn't need them. Marisa, herself, plopped down on the couch. She wanted to just pretend this was just another visit to Alice's house... Not that she'd been missing for a year, that her best friend had tried to murder her, or the overarching issue of having no idea what was going on... But, easier said than done of course.

Still, for her sake and likely for Alice's, she had to get her spirit back somehow. She decided to ask for what she was sure would yield good news: "So... I know I've been gone for a year and all, but how is everyone else?"

"Everyone else? You know I don't go out too terribly much, Marisa..." Alice lowered her book as she spoke. It was true... Sadly enough, before Marisa became a real acquaintance with her, her only real company that she knew of had been her dolls. Still, she and Alice did share a few friends other than Reimu.

"Well, for starters, what about Nitori?" Marisa began with. Nitori was an inventive kappa who lived at the river on the base of Youkai Mountain. She was a bit shy when it came to humans, but friendly enough, which let Marisa befriend her easily enough. She always seemed to have interesting things for Marisa to "borrow." Regardless, Alice's answer wasn't quite what she wanted to hear.

"I couldn't tell you. The tengu have sealed up Youkai Mountain, from what I've heard. No one is allowed to come or go... I'm afraid Nitori is stuck there for the time being." the Dollmaker explained, earning a soft sigh from Marisa; looks like they couldn't count on Nitori for help at the moment. But at the same time, if Reimu had gone haywire, perhaps it was best that Youkai Mountain had passed into a defensive mode. The only person who likely was worse for the wear were Kanako and Suwako, the mountain gods who had a shrine on towards the summit.

"Then... What about Patchy?" Marisa followed up. "Patchy" was, of course, short for "Patchouli." Patchouli Knowledge was a magician youkai who took up residence in the Scarlet Devil Manor across the lake from the forest. She was extremely withdrawn and prone to bouts of poor health, so she didn't leave the mansion's library very often.

"Miss Patchouli? She was fine last time I spoke to her... Though, things have begun to come to a bit of a head. From what she told me, Reimu came to the mansion and demanded that Remilia stop her nightly strolls..."

"I bet that didn't make Remmy too happy." Marisa grimaced. Remilia Scarlet was the owner of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and a vampire. Marisa knew she went out sometimes to feed on humans at night, although she'd never killed anyone to her knowledge, due to a small appetite.

"No, it didn't. The two were at odds. I remember when Remilia used to visit the shrine for tea." Alice said rather balefully. Marisa groaned quietly; this was, so far, having the opposite effect of what she had been planning it to be like. Still, there was one more person she was curious about.

"And what about Yukari? You said she and Reimu got into it over... That incident, right?" Marisa couldn't bring herself to say "killing those youkai," still. Yukari Yakumo was an extremely powerful youkai that lived in seclusion from most of Gensokyo. She had a power over borders and gaps, and was a friend and common visitor to Hakurei Shrine. Not only that, but she was a stickler for keeping the status quo between youkai and humans in order. If Reimu was doing this, Yukari would not be happy.

At being asked this, Alice's expression, which had been one varying between somewhat peaceful to somewhat sad, dropped. It was clear that, like when she had explained Reimu's deed in the human village, she didn't particularly want to talk about this. Nevertheless, she answered: "After that incident, as I said, Yukari confronted her. Apparently, they got into a fight, and Reimu seriously injured Yukari. No one has seen her since."

"A-Are you serious?" Marisa's jaw slacked slightly in surprise; Yukari was immensely powerful. When she had fought the gap youkai along with Reimu, they had barely come out on top... And that was against Yukari when she was feeling particularly ill from lack of sleep.

"I'm afraid so. Yukari would normally be the one to settle these kinds of matters, but.. I'm afraid we're on our own unless you'd like to visit Miss Patchouli."

Marisa nodded twice. She felt down again... That certainly hadn't worked. But at least she knew more about what had happened while she was away, and who would make viable allies should it come to that.

The day went on, and the night followed. Marisa and Alice spent it together.

* * *

Reimu Hakurei was all by herself at her shrine. At one point, that would have been a rare happening indeed. However, nowadays, it was the standard. No one came close to Hakurei Shrine. The humans never wanted any part of the place, and now the Youkai feared it. She couldn't say it was entirely pleasant like that.. But it was a necessity. She brought herself onto this path, and the fork in the road was so far behind her that she couldn't even remember what it looked like anymore

But still, she felt, as she gazed up at the moon, that she was beginning to get used to. It was starting to feel natural, this life of solitude that she had chosen for herself. It had been long enough that she was beginning to separate herself from the outside. Her duty was becoming her life, for perhaps the first time since she accepted her duty as a shrine maiden. The others didn't matter anymore, even if they weren't coming. In point of fact, she'd only had one visitor for the past two months. That one that had come today.. That one who had shaken her up.

_"The one that looked like Marisa." _Reimu shivered involuntarily, as she gazed at the Shinto gate bathed in moonlight. The moment she had seen her, everything had come flooding back to her, and she was for a few fleeting moments at the start of all of this; crouched on the stone surface of Hell itself, her friend in her arms. Blood all over the rocks, all over the black dress, all over her hands. No breathing.

The shrine maiden's legs rose up a bit and she curled them against her chest, shutting her eyes tight. Never, since the day she had met Marisa, had she thought that losing her would affect her so heavily. But, then again, she hadn't ever lost a friend. The spell cards had facilitated that.

_"But they also facilitated her death." _the logical section of her brain told her, _"If we were prepared to fight that crow instead of carrying around spell cards, we would have beaten her. No problem."_

It was what she told herself when she had stalked upon Utsuho's fallen form after their battle and obliterated it utterly. The spellcard rules were flawed, and they always had been. Reimu had been a fool to buy into them, and had been a fool to trust Yukari, because human lives were far more important than the sake of Gensokyo.

Slowly, the shrine maiden rose from her seat, turning her back to the night and heading around the shrine to her home. What had come and visited her today.. It wasn't Marisa. It looked and sounded like Marisa.. It even flew like Marisa. But there was no way that Marisa Kirisame could be alive, not after watching her die with her own eyes. And whatever that thing that was wearing Marisa's face was, be it one of Alice Margatroid's dolls, or some other strange youkai intent on shifting her away from the path she had taken, it would perish along with any youkai that dared cause trouble in Gensokyo while the Hakurei shrine maiden was on guard.

* * *

**At this point, I've run out of stuff that I've already written. So from here on out, updates will probably be slower. I apologize if anyone is actually following along with this story!**


	5. Hysterical and Useless

Marisa awoke the next morning from the futon that Alice had gotten out for her; she'd slept on the floor next to the dollmaker, since there were no guestrooms and because Alice was painfully aware of the fact that Marisa tossed and turned in her sleep, so sharing a bed was out of the question. It was a satisfying rest, but she felt tired; even after four days straight of sleep. The weight of the world was driving her that way, reducing her normally energetic self into this.

But the end was in sight. Today, she and Alice were going to at least attempt to study what was going on with her. Still, she wasn't exactly sure how to go about it, though. On one hand, they were likely amply smart enough to work things out by themselves. On the other hand, they could always enlist more help. Alice had said Patchouli was still around and likely able to help, but the mansion was supposedly in a bit of turmoil at the moment.

"Mornin', Alice." Marisa said, followed by a subdued yawn, rubbing her eyes. Before she had reached the kitchen, she'd already subconsciously decided on sticking with the help of Alice. Patchy likely already had her hands full with the way Remilia was reacting to Reimu's demands. She just hoped the pair didn't get too deeply into any more conflict.

"Good morning, Marisa." Alice said with a smile. Alice's smile was a small little thing. It didn't show up as often as Marisa would have liked to see it, but when it was there she had a hard time admitting it wasn't kind of cute. Alice was cooking again, as Marisa could smell. The scent was more familiar and plain than last time; it looked like she was making up some steamed rice and miso soup. Shanghai and Hourai were fluttering about busily, keeping everything going well as Alice turned to sit down at the table.

The pair had an enjoyable breakfast, idly chatting about rather mundane things, but soon after, research began. Alice had a rather large collection of tomes; more than even Marisa. Furthermore, unlike Marisa's, they were neatly set up in three tall bookshelves lining the wall.

"So, any plans?" Marisa asked, hands on her hips, looking up and down at the multitude of tomes, "I figure the best thing would be a memory spell, eh? Something to give me back that lost time?"

"Mm.. I suggested that yesterday, yes. That's one way of approaching things." Alice nodded thoughtfully, tapping her chin, "But that's also possibly dangerous. Memory restoration spells are easy enough to cook up, but they're usually used to restore short-term memory loss, or specific events. You're missing an entire year. The rush of all that information straight to your brain could overload it."

Marisa clicked her tong in annoyance; Alice had a point. It seemed this wouldn't be quite so simple, and she wasn't big on the idea of possibly frying her brain in an attempt to learn something that might turn out to not be as helpful as she was hoping. Indeed, now that she thought about it, memory might not be as important as...

"What about a magic identification spell?" Marisa suggested, holding up an index finger. Alice gave her a somewhat confused look.

"Easy enough, but what are you suggesting we do that for?"

"Tsk.. Simple enough." Marisa grinned. Alice felt a bit frustrated at the witch's snark, but once again recognized it as a good sign more than anything, "Maybe it isn't important where I've been or what I've been doin'. Maybe what's more important is what could've happened between then and now."

Alice was quiet for a few moments, raising a hand to her chin thoughtfully, but even during that hesitation Marisa could see that she was recognizing the idea as something that could be entirely legitimate. People don't just lose years of their lives, regardless of the circumstance. Finally, she nodded: "That sounds like it could be a good idea. The only problem is that you're going to need to be more specific than that... What kind of magic should we be looking for?"

"Well, there's a few culprits that I could think of, but most of 'em don't make a lot of sense, y'know?" Marisa nodded thoughtfully. Alice watched, genuinely surprised; the dollmaker always thought of Marisa as being so rambunctious and loud, but when it came down to the wire, she had to admit that she was impressed with how fast she seemed to be putting things together as she spoke, "Traditional magic like you and I use could probably put someone into stasis for a year if the person casting the spell was strong enough... But.."

"But who would cast something like that? No one we know... And I honestly can't think of any outsider magicians invested in the situation enough to have done that."

Marisa nodded, in full agreement: "Yeah, or any way that they would've been able to get their magic all the way to where me and Reimu were fighting Utsuho. Same goes with divine stuff... The only person in range would've been Reimu. And I think we can rule her out with the way she's acting. That, to me anyway, leaves gaps."

Alice nodded. Of course that was a narrow viewpoint, but at the same time it wasn't unreasonable. Gaps were Yukari's signature type of magic manipulation, akin to tears in reality itself. Yukari herself had been known to be secretive about her ploys, and play out long schemes. Could this be one of hers? Somehow it seemed almost.. cliché, but certainly possible. Already, she was beginning to mix up a gap detection spell, with Marisa peering at the instructional grimoire while she was at it. Quietly, both magicians hoped that their intuition was right here. If it wasn't, they could easily spend days mixing up different kind of detection spells. And by then, things might have come to a head.

Those were the kinds of things that the duo simply had to avoid thinking about; Reimu, in addition to the safety of the youkai of Gensokyo, were riding on Alice and Marisa's backs. All in all, it took about an hour to brew up the potion properly. It was pretty simple, all things considered, for something related to something as powerful as gap magic; all the regents were things that Alice had in stock regularly, and there were no complicated or dangerous procedures involved. All they had to do was mix some things together, and...

"All right, Marisa. This part is simple enough; just stick your hand in this mix." Alice pushed forward a small bowl filled with sludgy-looking, thick purple-and-red liquid. It looked a lot more viscous than the average potion that she had experience with, barely sloshing about in its container at all as the dollmaker slid it forward. Marisa gave a little groan of displeasure that earned a roll of the eyes from her friend, "Come on, you big baby. It's mostly just mushroom and herbs. I've seen worse things growing in your room."

"Yeah, but I don't dip my hand in the stuff that grows in my r- hey, wait! Shut up." Marisa growled. Still, she did as she was instructed, sliding one soft-skinned hand into the mixture and rooting around in it a little bit. It felt... Awful. Marisa couldn't really describe the texture that was currently rather hot against her flesh any other way but "foul" and "disgusting." While the process might not have been a good representation, the feel of the stuff in the bowl was much more representative of the strangeness of gap youkai magic.

As Marisa stood there wrist-deep in gunk with a look of agony on her face, Alice was rolling her finger across the words of the grimoire containing the instructions for the concoction, her other hand reaching for a piece of old parchment that had begun to yellow around the edges: "Soak in it for about two minutes, and then press your hand on the paper. If it's gap magic, it should produce this rune here," she said, putting the book down on the table. The rune was an odd seed-shape, with curling lines going inwards. It was quite complex-looking. For a moment, Marisa couldn't help but wonder why magic had to be so complicated. Of course, that thought was quickly squashed away by her own answer; she wouldn't have it any other way. That was part of the fun!

Doing as she was instructed, Marisa's hand breached free of the bowl of slime, the mixture still clinging to it in thick-looking globs, and plopped down her hand flat, fingers spread, onto the parchment with a wet "splat." At first, nothing seemed to be happening, but quickly enough she could feel a gross, slippery motion beneath her. The witch retracted her hand to see the slimy hand print she had left behind... _Slithering. _ The shapes of her fingers were coiling like little snakes, and the central imprint of her palm was splitting in two. Both magicians watched quietly as their work completed itself, curling into a complex patter. The fact that it reacted was indicative of the fact that the spell had worked, and something had been recognized. But in the end...

"What.. The hell is that supposed to mean?" Marisa frowned, peering down between the grimoire and the paper now that the slime had stopped moving. It had indeed transformed but it didn't match the book; the basic seed shape was there, but rather than the fancy curls going inwards and filling the empty area within it, they instead were reversed, reaching outwards from the center like branches or vines. Both girls looked at the results with furrowed brows.

"Maybe... The book got it backwards?" Marisa suggested, picking up the parchment. The animated sludge had stopped moving and seemed to have dried when she touched it, leaving behind a scentless, purple picture. Alice shook her head doubtfully.

"The shape is too intricate. I highly doubt someone could make that big a mistake. It seems more likely that this is gap magic, but... Different." she sighed as she pondered this latest complication of the situation

"How is that even possible?," Marisa pondered out loud, half to herself. It wasn't like what Alice was suggesting didn't make sense; after all, the spell that had been specially created to detect a certain type of magic had reacted. The thing was, Yukari 's gap magic was unique. No one but her could manipulate gaps, she was one of a kind. Somehow, at the end of all of this, she felt like she was even more lost now than she had been at the start.

"I'm not sure, but I suggest that we pay the Yakumo house a visit." Alice leaned back in her chair, closing the grimoire and handing it to Shanghai and Hourai, who idly fluttered over to place the book back on the shelf where she had fetched it from. Marisa was already up out of her own chair, putting her wide-brimmed steepled hat on her blonde-haired head, "That is if we can find it."

"I've been to Mayohiga before. I'm sure if we snoop around enough, one of Yukari's pets will find us, eh?" Marisa didn't seem all that worried, despite Yukari being notoriously difficult to find. That was pretty standard, really, for someone like the gap youkai who could be wherever she wanted to be if she really put her mind to it, "With Reimu being how she is, they'll probably be on high alert. Which means we have to worry less about finding them, and more about them finding us and blowing us away before we can explain ourselves."

"Comforting." The dollmaker sighed... But that turned, moments later, into a grin when she saw the expression on her friend's face; Marisa Kirisame didn't look the least bit worried. This was an improvement, after all. This was progress. They were already a few steps closer to figuring out what had happened to her, and possibly figuring out a way to prevent Reimu from causing any more damage.

For the first time in a good while, things seemed like they just might be all right after all.

* * *

Reimu's eyes scanned the shrine grounds; she had finally finished cleaning. No dirty, no straw, no leaves.. The cobble approach to the shrine itself was spotless. And now, to just wait.. For no one. Why was she doing this? It wasn't like any of the people she devoted her life to protecting ever came and gave donations or praise to the god housed there. Hell, it wasn't like she even knew what the god who lived within the shrine was like! All she knew was that her mother had reassured her of the importance of keeping the place tidy, and that that had stuck with her long after she had passed away.

Part of the work she did was for her god, regardless. Gods couldn't exist without people having faith in them, so she had to keep telling herself that. Maybe that didn't make her a good shrine maiden? She liked to think that other factors made up for that.. Especially as of late. Eventually, she reassured herself, now that youkai weren't going to be hanging around all the time like the shrine was their second home, she was going to start getting visitors.

"The shrine looks wonderful, Reimu." a voice interrupted her thought on her job. She looked up to find a tall young woman with silvery hair set into pigtails, clad in a soft-looking blue maid uniform. She'd heard someone call it "French" before, though she had no idea where or what that was exactly. Regardless, Sakuya Izayoi wore it well, looking quite elegant with those long legs on display coming out from the skirt. Her red eyes scanned the shrine maiden over.

"Mhm. Do you need something?" Reimu asked, leveling her gaze with the maid's own. Sakuya was a servant of Remilia Scarlet, the vampire mistress of Scarlet Devil Mansion. Furthermore, she was a force to be reckoned with, with the ability to stop time and quite a way around a set of throwing knives. Many others would have shied away from meeting the imposing woman's glance, but Reimu had little problem maintaining eye contact with her.

"I do not, no." Sakuya responded, arms crossed in front of her, resting on her lap as she stood a short way away from the shrine. Her speech was very levelled and calculated, "Though I have to admit, I'm not here to admire your sweeping, either. I have a message from my lady."

"Well, go ahead." the shrine maiden sighed.

"My lady has considered your edict against her nightly strolls, and I am afraid that she has decided to reject it. It simply is not feasible for her to stay cooped up inside all night. It makes it more difficult for her to obtain food, in addition to being particularly boring. For the time being, her strolls will continue."

Reimu closed her eyes, listening to each well-refined word leave the maid's lips. When she was done, she nodded, a thoughtful expression on her face. Sakuya's own did not change; she wore a rather thin smile, all business. The head maid was never exactly "open", but there was clear tension in the air at the moment that expressed easily enough her displeasure at having to be here having this conversation with Reimu. Finally, the shrine maiden responded: "That's not what I want to hear, unfortunately. And it isn't acceptable either. Remilia is going to need to stop her feeding, or else-"

"Or else?" Sakuya interjected, that even and calculated voice rising to a bit more of an edge, a hint of dangerousness added to it. She still wore that cold, professional smile on her face, not at all daunted. Reimu didn't expect her to be; she was more than formidable. Neither one could see the other as being afraid of them.

"Or else there's going to be consequences. Things are changing, Sakuya. I'm not going to allow vampires to roam the countrysides of Gensokyo at night, it sets a poor precedent, even with Remilia's nonlethal appetite. The last time I visited, I told both of you that."

"I'm afraid your terms are unreasonable, Reimu. More than that, I'm afraid that _you _have become unreasonable. I've been instructed to tell you that you are no longer permitted on the mansion premises. I'm sorry it had to come to this."

Reimu was silent. Remilia was her friend.. Or, had been. Why had things turned out like this? Why couldn't that goddamned arrogant vampire not just _listen _for once? She began to shake slightly; not out of fear or sadness at the situation, but rage, A youkai with the audacity to deny the Hakurei Shrine maiden, she told herself as her hand slowly reached down to her purification needles, was a danger to all, regardless of who or what they are. Just as Utsuho had been. Just as Mystia and Suika had been.

"I'm sorry, but the next time I come to your mansion, it won't be on invitation. People don't send out invitations for others to destroy them." Reimu said quite simply. Her hand raised, three long silver needles extended past her knuckles. Sakuya hadn't even made an act of aggression on her. Furthermore, Sakuya was a human. And yet, the crime was already fresh in her mind; being Remilia's messenger. Did that make her insane? Was she crazy now? Was this what things had come to? All these questions were storming around her mind in a mad flurry, and she didn't know how to answer them. The only thing she could think of doing was arcing her hand downwards, the weapons streaking forwards at Sakuya at high speeds.

To Reimu, the maid didn't even seem to have moved. Rather, she was there one second, and then she wasn't there the next. She knew that was not due to her speed, which was naturally quite impressive, but due to her time manipulation powers. She had simply frozen the progression of time and slipped out of the way, now flying above Reimu, staring down. Those eyes were still deep red and imposing, but the smile that had been on her face was gone, replaced by an unpleasant frown. She didn't seem incredibly perturbed at Reimu trying to kill her, but she was clearly displeased. And yet, from what Reimu could see, no knives were flying back her way.

"Reimu, to be honest, my lady wanted to come here herself," Sakuya spoke softly, the breeze rippling through her lovely silver hair, "but I told her not to. I figured that you would do something like this, and I figured that she might not be able to hold herself back in response."

"That's a pity then," Reimu snarled. The hesitation that had dwelt inside of her at attacking her friend was gone, replaced by a terrible throbbing in her brain and a great deal of rage, "I could have gone ahead and ended this if she had come."

At the threat against her mistresses' life, Sakuya's eyes momentarily met Reimu's own anger, and the two found themselves glaring at one another once again. The shrine maiden was readying more needles, but Sakuya didn't seem to be preparing to defend herself at all. She wasn't sure why, until Sakuya seemed to manage to calm herself enough to continue to speak: "I requested her to let me go instead, because My Lady cares about you, Reimu. As sharp and irate as she can be sometimes, she does consider you a friend. I didn't want her to have to hurt you... And I didn't want her to see what you've become. You're like.. An animal. Attacking the people that have done nothing but help you. It's disgusting."

"_Shut up._" The shrine maiden hissed, pulling her hand back and preparing to throw more needles. However, this time, it felt different. It was like her arm shut down, her joints locking in place. That arm seemed like the heaviest thing in the world all of a sudden. Deep down inside, Reimu realized that that wasn't Sakuya's doing either; her own body was resisting the fiery inferno of anger that her mind was currently cloaked in. It was demanding a stop to all of this, demanding, even now, that she listen to the logic and reasoning of youkai and the companions of youkai. It was putting friends over the safety of Gensokyo.

"I implore you to stay away from Scarlet Devil Mansion, Reimu Hakurei. This meeting went just about how I expected it to go and I've given my message to you, and as such, I'll take my leave. While I'm gone, you would do well to reflect on what you're doing. I doubt the witch would have wanted it," Sakuya said, her voice chilling and near-emotionless, "Not to mention the oni."

The maid turned and flew. Reimu did not give chase; she couldn't. Her legs felt weak, weak enough that all sturdiness in them fled and she fell to her knees . She hated Sakuya, she thought to herself. However, she couldn't figure out if that was a hatred greater or lesser than that she was currently feeling for herself.

The shrine maiden resigned herself to weeping alone. She was there for quite awhile.


	6. Fragile Wonderland

Alice clung to Marisa's midsection as the witch's broomstick sped over the treetops of the Forest of Magic. It was her first flight with her since she had woken up, and internally Alice was rather thankful that Marisa had gotten a chance to get back into the groove of riding it. She was half-expecting some crazy corkscrews and swerves due to lack of practice, but she had underestimated her it seemed; the ride was the same as it always was. Alice herself could fly, but she was nowhere near as fast as Marisa, so simply riding along with her was usually the best option.

Marisa, meanwhile, was preoccupied with something a little bit different that hadn't hit her during her trip to and from Hakurei Shrine yesterday: Gensokyo was terribly quiet. Normally, she would have seen fairies bounding to and fro this time of year, in addition to other youkai out running errands or simply roaming and looking for some trouble. A typical trip for Marisa involved several pit-stops to chat or duel, or even stop at Mystia's eel stand. But even that was suspiciously absent from sight today, and it was making the witch particularly uneasy to the point where she finally asked, "Where the hell is everyone?"

"They're mostly out there." Alice spoke. Marisa actually slowed down her flight a bit so that they could hear each other over the whistling wind, "Reimu has a habit of threatening youkai that openly roam outside of places like Youkai Mountain. After the incident in the village, most youkai don't really want to test her. Even the fairies, who can't die in the first place."

Marisa chewed on that information for a moment, before simply speaking her mind: "Things are really screwed up, eh?"

"Gensokyo doesn't feel like Gensokyo anymore, Marisa. It's awful, even for someone like me that doesn't go out much in the first place." Alice's grip on the witch increased a little, perhaps out of the rather stressful situation. Marisa didn't really mind it; when going full speed with Alice on board it usually felt like Alice was trying to squeeze the life out of her in comparison. Still, now that she had mentioned that, a new thing was bothering her. She wasn't sure she should ask it, but that rarely stopped her regardless. And so, as they cleared the forest and began to fly in the direction of Youkai Mountain...

"What were you doing at Reimu's that day, then? When you found me? It's not like you were planning on stumbling upon me." she asked. There was no immediate response. In fact, there was a long enough pause for Marisa to look over her shoulder curiously and find Alice with a rather downcast expression, staring at the ground flying by below her.

"...I was going to..." Alice muttered with a bit of hesitation uncharacteristic of her. She usually had no problem telling people her thoughts if things came down to it. But before she could finish her thoughts, she felt Marisa stop roughly. Looking back up, the dollmaker's eyes widened; Youkai mountain was just ahead of them. The area around it was busier than either Alice or Marisa had ever seen, with a visible mass of crow tengu swirling around the middling area. Lots of youkai could be seen moving around lower down as well, "The mountain is on high alert... I don't know if they think that Reimu is really going to attack, or if they're just trying to show her that doing so would be suicide. Either way, I knew it was bad, but I didn't know it was _this _bad."

"And it's not helping their case, either. They should be up in front of her, telling her 'no way, dammit!' Youkai are just as much a part of this world as humans are, there's no reason for them to all be crammed into one neat little space." Marisa grunted in annoyance, changing her course a bit earlier than she had planned. She didn't really want to risk going too close to the mountain and angering the tengu, who were trouble enough when it was just one or two of them that wanted to fight you. Mayohiga was a short ways past it and off to the east, so luckily they didn't need to go onto the mountain itself.

"Marisa, sometimes I think you're a little bit closer to a youkai than a human. I suppose you're just that weird." Alice said, half to herself. However, the way she said it didn't make it sound particularly like she was insulting the witch.

"Me? Nah. I'm ordinary. Normal as normal gets. It's you people with all your crazy, complicated issues that are the ones who are weird." Marisa answered in retort. In a way, Alice supposed, she was right. Marisa was so simple in her motivations and desires that it kind of balanced her out. Inwardly, she felt a vague desire to see a world with more people like Marisa in it, which was something she never really thought she'd be making a wish for.

The pair flew onwards, away from the busy mountain in search of Mayohiga. Marisa didn't bring up the fact that Alice had never answered her question earlier. There was no real reason to try and force it out of her if she was really intent on being so tight-lipped about it; she figured that the dollmaker would tell her eventually, if she really wanted to, on her own time. There was no real hurry in that regard, right?

* * *

The atmosphere of Mayohiga Village was something that Marisa had always found somewhat perturbing. It was an admittedly somewhat small place, but well-kept. There were many houses there, which all looked as if they were indeed inhabited and carefully cared for. The roads were well-made and the dirt paths that lead from place to place were incredibly tidy. However, as she well-knew, every single one of them was empty. Those doors that lead inside the many homes were never opened. No shadows passed by windows. That road never sported any footprints. The pair touched down just a short ways into the ghostly village, and climbed off Marisa's broom, which she held in one hand, peering around from beneath the brim of her steepled hat. Ahead of them was a large manor-house, which Marisa knew well enough to be the Yakumo homestead. And yet... At the same time, it was not.

This place was deceptive, just as Yukari was. Both relied on that deception for protection, and to Marisa, it was for that reason that both were rendered utterly infuriating to deal with at times. She cupped one hand to her mouth with her thumb hooked under her chin, bellowing: "Yukari! Fox! Cat! Somebody come out here and greet your guests already!"

There was nothing bit silence. Alice stood a few steps back from Marisa, holding her grimoire to her chest. She took that thing everywhere, even on the ride here. Shanghai and Hourai were also hovering at her sides; she was ready to fight, it seemed, if it came to it. Marisa expected there might be a little bit of a spat at first, but she doubted a full-on fight would break out once her intentions were well-known enough. The problem was really just getting their attention first.

"Why don't we just go inside?" Alice asked. She had never visited Yukari before.. After all, she had never really had a reason to. Whenever the two met, it was on Yukari's terms. The gap youkai only revealed herself when she felt it was really needed.

"Because that's not a real house." Marisa answered, nodding towards the impressive manor, "If we go inside, it'll look the same as if we went into any of the other houses in this village; empty. Pretty nice, but empty. Y'know, this would be a pretty awesome place to live, if not for being miles and miles away from everything... And for being super creepy, I guess." she sighed.

From a small pouch on her side, Marisa unearthed a small treasure that she has snagged before leaving Alice's; her mini-Hakkero. Appearance-wise, it simply seemed like a strange wooden octagon of some kind, a hole set in the middle. Anyone that had ever fought Marisa before, however, would know that it was a _little _bit more than that. She smirked, raising it up in her palm, fingers coiled around the edges and holding onto it firmly: "This'll get their attention."

Alice frowned, and began: "Is that really ness-" but before she could finish, Marisa let her mini-Hakkero rip with a cry. The air in front of it crackled, and then there was a powerful _FWOOM _like fire exploding out of a furnace. From the hole in the center, a thin white light emerged at first, but suddenly began to grow thicker at an incredibly fast pace before becoming about four or five times as broad as Marisa's torso, blasting out into the sky with a thunderous sound. It was, of course, Marisa's Master Spark, a magical attack that could reduce trees and houses to nothing but ash. Alice had heard it quite a few times since she had met Marisa, but still she had to jump back and cover her ears. Both Shanghai and Hourai did the same; who could could blame them? It sounded like a battery of cannons firing off all at once. And yet, the witch didn't seem to mind, standing and smirking widely.

The spark faded suddenly, just as quickly as it had torn out of the mini-Hakkero, leaving the wooden octagon sparking and sizzling from its hole, the air around it heavily distorted by the heat difference. Though no one seemed to have emerged due to it, she looked around with a smirk on her face; "That was a warning shot! If one of you doesn't come out here and talk to me already I'm gonna start shooting up houses. Trust me, I haven't gotten to Master Spark anything in a whole year. I'm _itching _to blow some stuff up."

Finally, as if a reaction to Marisa's words, there was an odd tearing sound from ahead of them; the thin air seemed to tear asunder horizontally like an opening curtain, peeling to either side to reveal... An identical setting. Alice and Marisa could see the same house inside of the otherworldly rip just ahead of them.. The only difference being, of course, the pair of figures standing there. On one side stood a small girl, about the size of a child, wearing a small red Asian dress and a puffy green mob cap. From either side of it, out of her dark-haired head, two black cat ears sprouted, twitching unhappily like those of a bothered house cat. She regarded the pair unhappily, even nervously, hugging against the other figure, a split cat tail swaying behind her.

Speaking of the other figure, she was a little bit more imposing than the cat girl.. Okay, a lot. She was a good head and shoulders taller than Marisa and Alice, clad in an extravagant looking robe. Nine brilliant yellow tails were sprouting out, long and fluffy. They almost made Marisa want to walk up and touch them, of not for the death stare that she was getting from the tall, busty woman. It was, of course, the shikigami pair Ran Yakumo the kitsune, and Chen the nekomata

"I'm sorry that you've both come all this way, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Ran said very plainly. It sounded almost like she was in a hurry... Which wasn't normal. Ran was usually rather reserved and laid back, despite how snooty she could come off sometimes. Even just from that, Marisa could tell that something was amiss. She wasn't even scolding her for threatening to blow up half of Mayohiga! Chen, meanwhile, said nothing; she was actually somewhat shy unless she needed to do a job assigned to her by either Yukari or Ran.

"We need to see Yukari." Alice responded. Ran and Alice didn't exactly know each other very well, though they had met. Nevertheless, Alice didn't seem to be pleased with the shikigami's attitude, "I apologize if my friend's.. method of getting your attention.. Ruffled your feathers. Or tails. But this is extremely important."

"I'm afraid that it isn't important enough to warrant you seeing her. Leave." Ran repeated herself, her long, billowy sleeves raising up as she crossed her arms beneath her rather prodigious chest.

"You haven't even heard what we're here for, you know." Marisa grumbled irritably. She recalled Alice saying that Yukari had been hurt.. But how bad was it, really? Normally youkai could heal woulds quickly enough, "Listen, I know your mistress got into a tangle with Reimu and she's probably pretty banged up at the moment, but we need to see her. This is important, and it's about stopping her before she becomes even more of a problem."

This actually gave Ran ran reason for pause, it seemed. The kitsune bit her bottom lip, frowning, before turning to Chen: "Chen, please go ask the mistress...Please tell her the black-white magician and the doll girl are here about Reimu. Hurry. We're short on time."

"Y-Yes, Miss Ran." Chen nodded. Both of them seemed somewhat.. Nervous? Either way, the little nekomata ran off to go do as Ran instructed. She turned back to the pair, regarding them with a slightly less venomous expression. Marisa noted the initial reaction seemed to be an attempt at protecting her mistress. Now she was a little bit more relaxed, but not a great deal.

"If you're here for Lady Yukari's help, I'm afraid that you're going to be disappointed. But if you really need to see her and she is willing, then I'm not going to object. But keep in mind, if either of you act strangely, I'll tear you to pieces. I'm aware that you are both acquaintances of the shrine maiden, and-"

"You don't need to worry." Alice said rather grimly, "We may be Reimu's friends, but we don't want what's been going on in Gensokyo to keep on any longer than you do."

"Yeah, what she said. But.. What didja mean when you told Chen that you were 'short on time'? Is Yukari.." Marisa began, but frowned. Ran gave them both a sour expression, and shook her head. Before she could answer either way, Chen returned, looking between Ran and the two magicians, before giving the kitsune a nod.

"Go see Lady Yukari. She'll be able to explain better than I." Ran said, standing aside with her shikigami. Neither Alice nor Marisa felt like anything good was happening at the moment, but did as they were instructed, briskly walking into the Yakumo manor-house. The front sliding doors were wide open.

Inside, Marisa recognized rather quickly where she was, but Alice was taking in the place for the first time. It was large, but seemed rather simple.. And yet, at the same time, not quite the same as any house in Gensoyko that she herself had ever visited. It seemed.. Different. More "modern"? It was hard to say. There were things that didn't really look like anything she had ever seen before, and others that clued her in rather quickly that Yukari appeared to have a lot of objects from the outside world. Some she had seen before in Kourindou before, but while they were broken and tattered there, they seemed to be functioning here. An odd-shaped box that appeared to have moving pictures on it.. A small object that displayed blinking numbers on it... It was certainly something else. No wonder Yukari hid this place away from the rest of Gensokyo... People would likely come and visit it simply to see the wonders that it contained.

She followed Marisa deeper into a side hallway, turning a corner before coming to a stop outside a wooden door. It had a knob, and didn't really seem to fit in with the largely Asian architecture of the house. It looked more at home in Scarlet Devil Mansion, or her own home. The witch turned it, and both entered; inside was a bedroom, decorated rather plainly but pleasantly with a few odds and ends here and there. By the window was a lavish-looking bed, tall with its bedposts raising up into a shroud. Fortunately, for the moment, the shroud was pulled back, giving the pair full view of the resting form of Yukari Yakumo.

Normally Marisa found Yukari rather intimidating-looking. For all the jokes they had shared since meeting, and as annoying and childish Yukari could be, she did have a certain air around her. However, what she was seeing right now was different. The gap youkai's long blonde hair was spilling messily around her on either side, not well-kept as it usually was. She was wearing night clothes which allowed several of the bandages her body sported to be seen, on her midsection and arm, and judging by its unevenness, there were likely even more. But most bothersome of all to the witch were her eyes; where normally a brilliant spark of cleverness resides, they looked.. Dull. Beaten and lifeless.

"I never thought I'd see you, of all people, Marisa. At least not this soon." Yukari spoke, regarding both Alice and Marisa carefully. Her tired gaze was focused on both of them. Normally Marisa would have averted her own, but she couldn't really bring herself to do that in this case. The gap youkai's voice was clearly rather strained, and lacking energy.

"I'd make a joke about not being easy to kill... But judging by that reaction, it sounds like you already knew I was alive." the witch finally responded, her voice unusually quiet. It felt like she was in a library under this atmosphere.

"No. Well, I suppose I did when Ran told me you were here to visit me, yes. I don't get many visitors from the grave, other than Yuyuko and her gardener." she responded with a soft, fragile laugh. It actually made Marisa grin a little bit, but not as much as it should have, perhaps. She was both concerned about the state of Yukari, as well as her answer.

"So you're saying that you weren't the one that saved Marisa a year ago?" Alice asked curiously. She herself didn't seem to be quite as concerned about the gap youkai. She didn't really know her as well as Marisa, who could read how much pain she was currently in just by conversing with her.

"No, I didn't. I hope that wasn't really your purpose for coming here. That would have been such a waste~" She sighed, shifting herself back and resting her head on her pillow. Clicking her tongue in annoyance, Alice reached to her closed grimoire, pulling out the slip of parchment she had slid between its pages, holding it out to Yukari; it was the result of the gap magic detection spell, of course. Yukari turned to look at it curiously, and without even being told what it was, a little glimmer of interest suddenly slipped its way into her exhausted expression as she scanned over the abnormal shape of the seed with the extending swirls: "Oh my.. This is interesting. Much more interesting than I was expecting, really. Is this a result you took from...?"

"From me." Marisa nodded her head. Yukari's lips slowly shifted into a rather knowing grin that always frustrated the witch; she knew what was going on almost immediately, "It's not your normal gap magic, is it? But you're the only one who can use the stuff. So what's going on?"

"You're wrong. About me being the only one..." Yukari sighed, again resting on her pillow, "At least, in a way. I'm sure you realize that I'm not exactly in the best of shape right now, don't you? Reimu used forbidden techniques on me... Youkai extermination techniques that have been banned before she was born. Before her mother was even born, for that matter. Attacks that damage the very soul of a youkai."

"Utter destruction is a result of the attacks." Alice quietly explained to Marisa, looking uncomfortable. The dollmaker was a youkai herself, why wouldn't she be?

"That's right." Yukari nodded, "I suppose when I confronted her about what she had done... I didn't really expect her to react as she did. Does that make me careless? Ran said it did, but I only thought not expecting your friends to go a bit easier on you is just part of being a friend, isn't it? I'm sure those two thought so to.. Suika and Mystia. They got into a squabble and ended up destroying a home... So Reimu

"S-Suika? And..." She didn't finish. She was in shock; she had never thought to ask who Reimu had killed in the human village, sure it could be any number of different youkai in Gensokyo. She grit her teeth lightly... Suika was a good friend of hers, and now she was...?

"No. Stop that." Yukari insisted abruptly, clearly able to sense the rage that was currently welling up in Marisa, "You mustn't feel that way. I know what Reimu did was wrong... And I know you were Suika's friend.. But aren't you Reimu's as well?"

"Maybe I was." Marisa hissed. She didn't entirely mean it, perhaps, but what was she supposed to think at the moment? Being confronted with the fact that one of her friends had murdered another? And Yukari, of all people, in this state, was trying to convince her otherwise? Absurd.

"Maybe I was, but I'm starting not to see a reason to think I should be anymore. We have to stop her, Yukari. And to stop her, we need you to tell us what happened. I can tell you know."

"No." Yukari said flatly, which earned a frustrated stomp from Marisa. Alice only stood and watched silently; this was between Marisa and Yukari, "No, I'm not going to tell you. Because you aren't ready, Marisa. Not if you're feeling all that anger. I can tell what you're feeling right now, and you know what?"

"I don't care. Why the hell should I care, dammit?! Suika is dead! My friend is-" she began to shout back at the prostrate gap youkai, who managed to silence her with a single sentence.

"What do you think Reimu was thinking when you were fighting Utsuho?" She inquired. Marisa bit back a curse, her face red with rage. Alice had never seen her like this before; Marisa was so happy-go-lucky. When she had awakened she had been rather down about Reimu, but she'd never seen the witch flat-out lose her temper. Yukari continued nevertheless: "As I was saying.. I can tell what you're feeling. And you know what? It's going to make things worse, Marisa."

The gap youkai continued: "I nearly died when Reimu faced me. I am tied to the barrier around Gensokyo, Marisa. The barrier is the only thing that keeps our world apart from the modern one that surrounds it. If there is no gap youkai, the barrier falls. If there is no barrier, the Gensokyo you know will cease to exist. The magic that you love will vanish. The youkai will disappear. Everything that makes our home great will fade into legend, and nothing else. Gensokyo needs a gap youkai. Unfortunately, as wounded as I am, I am not going to be able to fulfill that purpose. I need to enter hibernation until my wounds heal."

"But you just said that with no one to control gaps, the barrier will fall." Alice said with a grim frown.

"That's right. And as such, I've passed my powers on to someone else for the time being. I could be sleeping for the next thirty to forty years while rejuvenating. As such, I gave my power to a person I believed I could trust."

"And who the hell is it?" It was Marisa's turn to question Yukari. She was still rather intense with anger at the situation. Yukari, however, was unphased.

"Someone long-gone. Someone that can handle their duties quietly. Someone you know, Marisa. And for their sake, all I can tell you is that they seem to have a plan, and if I interfere, for all I know, it could be ruined. That.. And that you mustn't kill Reimu Hakurei. Just as a gap youkai is needed to maintain the barrier, there must be a Hakurei shrine maiden. They are like a lock and a key. No matter how much rage you feel, you must not kill Reimu Hakurei, Marisa."

There was a prolonged silence. Everyone simply stared at each other for awhile. Eventually, Marisa turned away from both Alice and Yukari, her hat hiding her face from view: "I don't understand what I'm supposed to anymore, Yukari."

Yukari did not answer immediately, instead choosing to settle back down on her pillow, looking up at the shroud of the bed above her. When she did finally speak, her tone was wistful and quiet: "We live in a fragile wonderland, Marisa. A beautiful place, a utopia, that is constantly on the brink of collapse. The only thing it can do is try to look for balance, and cling to it. And the heavens help us if it falls, because it only takes one crack in the right place to shatter it forever."

"Reimu's a good girl, Marisa." the gap youkai continued, "She is a good girl... But she has a lot of responsibility. In a lot of ways, she is like Gensokyo herself.. Maybe that's why I always found myself so interested in her. She's in such a tenuous position, and as strong as she is, she has to seek balance in the form of people like you, Marisa.. And you too, Alice. When that balance is taken away, she doesn't know what to do. She becomes confused. And she blames herself for their loss. She doesn't want to look or feel weak, but then again, who does? She's trying to save everyone she cares about, the place that she cares about.. But it's driven her beyond the point where she can properly reason. Half of her heart is trying to tell her that none of this should have ever happened, and the other half is calling her a fool for not seeing it coming for miles away."

Neither Alice nor Marisa new how to respond. The dollmaker came closer to her friend, putting her hand on her shoulder. In the silence, she could hear Marisa's quiet sob. She didn't want either of them to see her crying, and for her sake, Alice would say nothing. She had never seen Marisa cry, and part of her felt it was better that way, if that was how Marisa wanted to keep it.

"I'm sorry.. But my time is just about up. I'm beginning to fall asleep.." Yukari exhaled softly, "I love Gensokyo, and its people are so much fun.. I only wish I could continue to watch them. At least I have waking up to look forward to. As for you, Marisa.. I'm not entirely sure what you have to look forward to. I have a feeling that you'll find out soon enough."

Closing her eyes tightly, Marisa began to leave the way she came. Alice quickly moved to follow her. However, she was stopped by one last beckoning from Yukari: "Puppeteer..."

"Yes?" Alice asked, turning on her heel to face Yukari. The gap youkai was smiling a little bit. She looked.. So much more satisfied than she had when they had arrived. It was like she had had a huge weight taken off of her shoulders.

"Take care of her. Even if things don't seem to make sense at the time, do what you can to help. We need people to stand beside us. Reimu didn't have anyone.. And you can see how that turned out."

Yukari's words bit into her, but she had no proper rebuttal for them. She silently turned to leave without giving her an answer.

* * *

**Pretty sure that was the longest chapter thus far, but I had a lot of fun writing it. When I set out on this story, I two things in mind; the ending was one, and the other was Yukari's speech, hence the name of the fic.**

**I'm happy that I've gotten a few follows and reviews. I really appreciate the attention to my story, especially when you've got a bunch of great ones floating around it on this site. Reviews are still heavily appreciated, as I am always in search of improving my writing. Please point out any plotholes or poor writing, or even typos, that you feel you need to, I know I'm not the best editor in the world. I don't mind harsh criticism at all! In fact, it motivates me more often than not!  
**

**Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and the ridiculously long authors note. See you next time!  
**


	7. Scarlet Devil

"Sakuya, sunset is nearly here. No one's going to stop me, Reimu included. You'll accompany me, right?"

Remilia Scarlet's words were expected by the maid almost to the letter once her recounting of her meeting with Reimu at Hakurei Shrine. The vampire had sat and listened in utter silence throughout the tale, though Sakuya could see her mistress' face shift into a state of unhappiness rather clearly at several points, even though she had left out the part about she and the shrine maiden coming to blows.. Or, at least, the shrine maiden coming to blows. At Remilia's question, she nodded twice: "Yes, my lady. If that is your wish, then we will walk together tonight."

"You're dismissed until then." she nodded, and waved a hand towards the maid, who complied and left her presence. The grand hall, the location of Remilia's throne, was lit only with candles; the windows were covered in thick, dark curtains that blocked any trace of daylight from coming in. However, the vampire could sense it was growing towards sunset; the hour would be coming soon. For the first time in two weeks, she would leave the mansion grounds; she would bask in the cool glow of the moonlight. She would watch the dancing fireflies. And she would pay a visit to the human village where she would, perhaps, find a meal.

For these long fourteen days, she had remained inside of Scarlet Devil Mansion of her own free will. Reimu was unhappy with her excursions out of her "territory," as the shrine maiden had recently begun taking to calling it. But, somewhere in her heart, she was hoping that a reasonable conclusion could be met between both of them. After all, was this not Gensokyo? A land where most conflicts ended with tea, sake, and cheer, rather than with blood and sorrow? And was this not Reimu, who she had taken to visiting every week or so simply to see her at the shrine?

Was it her fault? The vampire leaned to one side of her throne, cheek resting on a closed fist. Her tongue swirled around one of the long fangs inside of her mouth, as it often did when she found herself lost in thought. Was she not nice enough to her when she visited? She could be a bit bossy and pushy sometimes, she knew, but that was just how she was. Or maybe it was simply that the things she had done in the past, when it came down to it, were irredeemable.

Despite the front she had put on for Sakuya, Remilia was torn. She had been torn for quite awhile now, and it infuriated her that she couldn't get it all out of her head. She was Remilia Scarlet; conqueror, tyrant, princess. The Devil, embodied. And yet here she was mulling over the feelings of some idiotic shrine maiden who had decided to develop a temper. Even following her orders! Maybe, she thought, it really _was _her fault. If she had never befriended Reimu, she would just be another annoyance for Remilia to push aside. Not someone that she...

"Gensokyo made me soft. That, or the shrine maiden did." she whispered. There was no one to respond to her in the empty hall, but it was for the better. She rose out of her chair, leathery wings beating twice behind her and stretching; tonight, she would show that that wasn't the case. No matter what Reimu felt about her nights out.. And no matter what Remilia felt about Reimu.

* * *

The first fifteen minutes of Alice Margatroid and Marisa Kirisame's flight home was spent without a word. Both were depressed after the visit to Yukari, and both had their mind heavily occupied by the weight of the situation they were in. Marisa, in particular, looked... Hollow. Her eyes surveyed the area ahead of them, but at the same time it seemed to just be staring through it and into some unseen thing off in the distance. Her thoughts were rife with turmoil. What was she supposed to do now? Where were she and Alice supposed to go from here, now that their first and only lead had just entered a slumber that was going to last for several decades?

Not only that, Suika was dead. Mystia too, though she couldn't profess to have gotten to know the night sparrow as well as she had Suika Ibuki, the powerful oni girl who had spent many a day simply lounging around Hakurei Shrine with the witch, having fun and drinking. She was dead, by Reimu's hand. One of her friends had murdered another one of her friends.. How was she supposed to deal with that? She thought at first it would be utter disgust, but Reimu was clearly not altogether there between the pressure of thinking that Marisa had died and trying to protect the people of Gensokyo from having the same thing happen to them.

That was what had lead to the worst thing of all: how could she have thought what she did? Even for just those few scant moments, how could she have settled on the idea of... Killing Reimu in retribution? Reminding herself of it made her skin crawl, and she shifted her legs on either side of the broomstick uncomfortably, but at the same time it still was present in her mind, that catch-all solution hanging onto her like a bothersome little parasite that just wouldn't stop hanging on. Reimu, right now, wasn't the Reimu that she had known when they had gone down into the geyser hole one year ago. But still, she was Reimu, the shrine maiden Marisa had known for years. How could she stop her? What would be the best way? _What should she do? _

It was all so confusing, and all Marisa wanted to do was to go to bed and stop thinking altogether. Even simple distraction would do. Things were rough for the witch. And as for Alice...

"I was going to try and stop her." The dollmaker abruptly said. Her voice was quiet, but Marisa heard it over the wind whistling around them as she flew all-too-clearly, and her pace began to slow as she realized that the question she had asked previously was being answered. Her head turned to look back to her, but Alice was once staring down at the ground below them, "I was going to challenge her. And if she kept doing what she was doing, I wasn't going to show her any mercy."

"Alice, you don't mean you were..." The witch began, but the dollmaker cut her off, raising her head again, steeling herself and looking at her friend. Alice's eyes were an intense, inhuman blue that was frankly slightly spooky this close. It was one of the very few hints to the former human's new found youkai status... However, at the moment, it was cloudy with tears.

"I was going to kill her. That's why I was at the shrine that day. I was going to demand she stop, and if she didn't I was going to stop her from hurting anyone else." Alice spoke, "I couldn't take it anymore."

Marisa couldn't find her words initially. Would Alice really do that? She wanted to admonish her for it; in fact, she waned to very badly. However, she couldn't bring herself to it, both because she herself had briefly come to that conclusion in a bout of passion, and because she knew Alice Margatroid was not stupid enough to have simply done that on a whim, "Alice... Relax, OK? You were just doin' what you thought you had to do. And you didn't, did you?"

Alice, however, wasn't having any of it, shaking her head and ignoring Marisa's rationalization: "No, I wasn't. I told you I couldn't take it anymore. Do you know what I did after Reimu killed those two youkai a month after we all thought you died? Nothing. I didn't do anything. I just stayed at home, crying about _you. _Do you know what I did a month later, when Yukari got into a fight with Reimu? Nothing. Remember what Ran said when we left? She and Chen have spent the better part of a year keeping her alive so she might not have to go into hibernation, and I didn't and find them to help. I just... Felt angrier. The more I thought about it, the more I hated her. I hated her, Marisa. I despised her with every bone in my body for what she was did to Suika and Mystia, and even more for the way she was using it to scare every other Youkai into submission. I hated that you had died down in Ancient Hell, and that shrine maiden had come back just to do all of this. By the time I arrived, I had already decided that I didn't care about the consequences of her dying if it just meant that she wouldn't kill anyone else, and Gensokyo would just.. Go back to normal."

"Alice..." Marisa whispered. The dollmaker had been shocked at her flat-out crying back at Yukari's, but this time it was Marisa's turn to be shocked. Alice had lost any sort of composure, to the point where the witch actually had to land the broom just outside the Forest of Magic. All she could do was listen to her, because Alice certainly wasn't going to reciprocate that at the moment.

"But you know what? Nothing would have gone back to normal." She said, her voice lowering. She was shaking like a leaf as she slowly slid off the broom onto her knees on the grass, "And it wouldn't have made me a better person... Because I was part of it. I could have been there for her! But I was too busy blaming her for what happened to you."

Marisa had moved to her, wrapping her arms around the other girl. She had never hugged Alice before; She had tried to before, back when she had first woken up two days ago (and failed), but that was a gesture based on her own frustration. This time, it felt like there was absolutely nothing else she could do at the time except be there for the other girl. The dollmaker didn't seem to mind, her own arms going around Marisa and holding onto her tightly as she cried into the witch's shoulder.

"W-When I found you, I started to feel better. I started feeling hope that maybe _I _could be happy again... I'm so selfish! No one was there for her, Marisa! None of us cared after everything she's done for us us! And.. And even now, when she's doing wrong, she's doing it in the name of helping everyone, and..." she degenerated into incoherent sobs. The witch stroked Alice's short blonde hair, her hands moving a bit awkwardly but nevertheless, with purpose.

"Alice... It's all right. Both of us are gonna be there for her now. It's not too late for us to do that. I dunno what we're going to do yet, but we'll figure it out. So stop blaming yourself, all right? Stuff is hard right now... And not just for you, either. A lot of the world we know's kinda gotten turn on its head. But it isn't over yet, right? We can still flip it back around. " Marisa attempted to reassure her. She was really no good in these situations; caring about how other people felt often came second to Marisa. Still, she couldn't let Alice just sit there and cry... And, it seemed that in the end, it had helped contribute to calming her down.

"We're... Both." Alice whimpered after a short time, slowly regaining her composure. Unlike what Marisa had done earlier, there was no hiding it and she didn't even try to avert her reddened eyes out of her friend's sight. "We're both going to. I'm going to make sure. I couldn't be there for Reimu... But I'm going to be there for you, Marisa. And... And I'll make up for what I've done, so we can help her make up for what she's done, too."

"That's right. We're not just gonna stop Reimu, we're gonna save her." Marisa nodded firmly, giving the dollmaker a squeeze, before trying to let go and lean back. Her arms came free.. But Alice's didn't, the two caught up for a moment before the she realized what she was doing and hurriedly allowing the witch freedom, looking a tad humiliated. Slowly, they both got back on the broom, lifting up off of the ground and flying back towards the cottage. Alice now believed she had figured out how Yukari felt when they had left her with that expression of having the world lifted off of her shoulders, and Marisa felt like the dollmaker had showed her a side of herself that few, if any, other people that knew her had ever seen: her human side. And while neither of them really held an enormous amount of assurance in what they were supposed to do next, they at least knew that they were going to try everything they could to solve this incident as a team, for the sake of both Reimu and Gensokyo.

* * *

The massive wooden double-doors that lead into the main foyer of Scarlet Devil mansion slowly opened inwards like a yawning mouth, warm, fresh night air flowing into the massive, stuffy structure. Remilia Scarlet breathed it in softly, fangs on full display as she inhaled. Somehow, the simple act of stepping out here felt... Liberating. It had only been two weeks since she had left for a night walk, but it felt as if she was stepping out of a dungeon for the first time in years. How Patchouli manage to stay cooped up in that library, day in and day out, the vampire girl would never quite understand.

"Shall we, My Lady?" Sakuya inquired coolly, the attitude of a professional coming through clearly in her voice, expression, and even stance. Sakuya might have been the head maid, but that might as well also have extended to head bodyguard. And, tonight, she was on full alert.

"Ease up a little, Sakuya." Remilia said with a smirk, noticing this. As turbulent as her thoughts had been earlier this afternoon, right now she felt so vastly different that no one could have known simply by watching her now. She took a few steps ahead, the stylish leather boots she wore when she was out and about softly tapping the concrete path that lead outwards from the mansion and into the courtyard.

Sakuya moved hastily to match her pace with a slight frown at how flippant Remi was behaving: "My Lady, please forgive my caution. After all, we are doing this under threat of retribution."

"Let the retribution come. The night's still young, and it's not like we have a tight schedule." she waved one pale-skinned hand dismissively as they made there way to the gate. The massive, wrought-iron structure that barred simple entrance into the mansion grounds was open wide; after all, their gatekeeper Meiling had been informed earlier that Remilia felt like taking a night stroll.

"...My lady, please. You have to understand, there shouldn't be any reason for us to have a fight with the Shrine Maiden."

"And why not?" Remilia asked, turning to face the taller girl, eyes meeting. As small as the vampire was, her eyes were rather frightening and dangerous-looking. Still, the maid was in no real mood to put up with this childish act that she knew her mistress was putting on at the moment. She closed her eyes, saying something she was already sure she was going to regret.

"Because you don't want to." Sakuya spoke. Almost immediately, Remilia grimaced and took on a look of frustration and embarrassment, judging by the red that flushed on her cheeks in the face of having her bluff called...And so began the torrent of angry denial.

"How dare you! You're forgetting your place, Sakuya. You can't just talk to me like that, I'm still your mistress! Don't tell me what _I _want to do, I can work that out for myself y'know!"

"My Lady..."

"And another thing, I didn't ask you to come with me because I needed protection, either! I only wanted someone to talk to. It gets kind of boring just moving around with nothing except the lowly youkai around here to talk to. Though, when I asked you, I can't say I expected you to be so rude!"

"My Lady."

"And another thing-"

"_My Lady!" _shouted Sakuya in an angry, scolding tone.

"_WHAT?!" _Remilia bellowed right back. But rather than more impudence from her maid, she got a question.

"Where is Meiling?" she asked quietly, her red eyes scanning the area hastily; the Chinese girl youkai was nowhere to be seen now that they had cleared the gate in the midst of the squabble.

Usually when she was goofing off she would at least remain near the gate, or the garden inside of the courtyard which she took care of in her spare time.. But they had passed the garden, and she was nowhere to be seen. Remi took to scanning the area around her as well, seeing no sign of... Wait, what was that? The vampire stepped forward towards one of the large pillars supporting the gate, kneeling down. On the ground, a tattered green cap was laying upside down. It was rather hard to see, blending in with the grass in the night, but it was unmistakable; that was Hong Meiling's signature hat, bearing a golden star pin with the Chinese character for "Dragon" printed on it. A droplet of something wet and warm abruptly fell on the back of her neck. This time, Remilia didn't have to question at all what it was. That wasn't rain, not with that smell so wonderful familiar to her. Slowly, she looked up.

Above them both, a figure was floating in the night sky, their silhouette contrasting against the moon.. Sleeves billowing in the breeze along with the large ribbon that adorned the back of their head. In one hand, a distinctive Shinto wand, paper charm at the end. In the other, another figure, being dangled by one leg.. Entirely motionless. A pair of blue, glowing eyes peered down at both of them studyingly as they both watched in shock.. And then, the hand holding the other figure slacked, and the body of Hong Meiling fell to the earth like a stone with a sickening thud.

"Meiling!" Sakuya bleated, the first one to break the silence as she rushed over to the girl's side. The red-haired gate guard had clearly been in a fight.. One she had not come out on top of, judging by the blood flowing freely from her forehead and a nasty gash running down her leg... In addition to a myriad of other wounds dotting her midsection; purification needles. It took a moment for the maid to snap herself away from all the damage and note the fact that she still appeared to be breathing. Anger began to well up inside of her, her fists clenching tightly... But by the time she had turned skyward again to the culprit, Remilia was already streaking towards her, leathery bat-wings spread and a scarlet-red energy spear blazing in her hands, calling back to her maid: "Sakuya, take Meiling somewhere safe!"

The vampire darted directly at Reimu with the weapon, but the shrine maiden dodged it casually to the side, leaving Remilia to whirl around and face her. Reimu looked.. awful. She looked exhausted, clearly lacking sleep... But at the same time, that was only really visible in her posture and eyes. Otherwise, she was entirely emotionless as both of them stared down each other.

"What the hell have you done?!" Remi barked at the other girl, readying her weapon for another pass at her.. But not going immediately. Something in her was holding her back. She had to speak to Reimu.

"I came to the mansion." Reimu responded, her voice terribly hollow, "And the gatekeeper wouldn't let me in. She defied me. And the new rules."

"New.. New _rules?! _Reimu, there was blood everywhere! You know Meiling isn't anywhere near as strong as you, and you-"

"If she didn't want to die, she should have stood aside." the shrine maiden again responded, her voice devoid of anything resembling humanity. It would have terrified someone less than Remilia, but all it was serving to do was make the vampire angry, despite what seemed to be clear indications that Reimu had snapped entirely.

"This is Meiling! Hong Meiling. You know, the person you've sat down and drank tea with? The person you helped with her garden? The person you-" She was gritting her teeth as she tried her best to reason sense into Reimu about what she had done, but she was cut off.

"If she didn't want to die, she should have stood aside." She repeated, before adding, "If you didn't want her to die, you shouldn't have made her your gate guard."

"You... You.." The vampire gripped the blazing red Gungnir spear in her hands, wringing it angrily in her hands, She didn't want to hurt Reimu. When she departed for this walk, even when she knew it was a possibility that there was going to be a fight, she swore to herself to avoid it. But this person? She couldn't accept it. This couldn't be Reimu, "You... _Bitch." _

Again, Remilia went speeding towards Reimu, who only watched her with those eyes that were glowing so brightly blue with spiritual power, but were so terrifyingly dead.

* * *

**Another chapter down. I had fun writing this one as well, though I don't feel quite as confident as the last one. Mainly, because I'm having a hard time conceptualizing danmaku battles in my writing. Most likely, you're going to see the Touhou girls fighting a bit more close-quarters than you might be accustomed to in the future.**

**Thank you for reading, and please, remember to review if you are able! I really appreciate any and all feedback to my writing!**


	8. The New Rule

Sakuya could not recall a situation quite this bad, and moreover she couldn't think of ever feeling quite as helpless as this. Deep in the labyrinthine Library of Voile, on the second floor of Scarlet Devil Mansion, she was doing the only thing that she really could; stand and watch Patchouli Knowledge's desperate attempt at keeping Hong Meiling alive. The red-haired gate guard had been set down on the table where Patchouli typically read, but it had been called upon today for a much more dire purpose as the asthmatic magician's hands gently hovered over the girl, an unearthly blue glow emanating from her palms.

"This isn't doing anything, Sakuya. It isn't enough." Patchy said through uneven breaths, even as she continued to work. Sakuya didn't need to be told; Meiling hadn't shown any signs of consciousness since she had been brought here. Blood continued to flow, as well.. Normally, as Sakuya had seen in the past, a magician's healing magic would close wounds up as if they were never there. This happened in the case of this situation as well.. But moments later they would tear back open, bleeding anew. It was a grotesque display, and one that the maid simply couldn't look away from; what had Reimu _done _to her? And did she intend to do the same to Remilia? And yet, the magician girl's words were not a resignation of defeat as she dutifully continued to cast healing spells.. If only she had a few more magic-imbued hands...

Suddenly, the maid felt a chill run down her spine; the noise outside, of a fierce danmaku battle, had ceased entirely.

* * *

Remilia Scarlet was in a position that she could not recall being in for quite a long time, if ever; on her hands and knees, face turned towards the ground. Blood trickled from a nasty wound in one of her shoulders, and a terrible burn was present on one of her legs from one of Reimu's energy blasts. All over the rest of her were cuts and bruises from various other impacts and the grazing of the shrine maiden's needles The pain was tremendous.. Far greater than any she'd ever felt before. And yet, as always, she could feel her body repairing it at an accelerated pace. The vampire's gift; undeath, unless the heart or brain was destroyed. Unlike Meiling, she was fairly sure she would survive whatever Reimu had done to make her sealing needles and blasts so powerful, but it would likely take quite a bit of rest. Reimu... Reimu.

The shrine maiden was looming over her now. She didn't even have to look up to know that, seeing the feet that she lay before just ahead. And she didn't even have to have a conflict with her pride to know that as it was, she had been defeated. Did Reimu care? Did those icy eyes that she had stared into as they had slung their attacks back and forth have any sort of change in them? Pity? Regret? No. At most, perhaps, she would have a look of disgust, maybe. Or maybe she was gloating. _"You stupid bat. Even when I was throwing lethal attacks at you, you were trying to fend me off with harmless danmaku? Did you think I would stop? Did you think I would care that you showed me any sort of mercy? Did you think that I would care that the Red Devil finally admitted that she could make a true friend of a...A..."_

"HUMAN!" Remilia roared, every ounce of strength in her body erupting inside of her as, wounded and beleaguered as she was, she rose to her feet. Her energy spear materialized in her hand, crackling angrily, but it wasn't its usual nonlethal imitation form. Rather, the real thing leveled itself beneath Reimu's throat. The shrine maiden simply stared at Remilia's tattered form as the two girls, once friends, stared into each others eyes.. Reimu's shivering an icy, empty blue and Remilia's burning a terrifying red.

"This is over, Remilia. You know it is." Reimu said calmly. She was entirely undaunted by the weapon in Remilia's hands, not even bothering to raise her harai-gushi wand in any sort of defense, "You can't sustain that thing. You're far too injured."

"Then I'd better hurry up and kill you, shouldn't I?!" The vampire snarled back. Her eyes were wide and glowing brightly, fangs bared and on display... In many respects, she resembled a cornered animal... Quite a long ways away from the composed, dignified mistress of Scarlet Devil Mansion. And yet even now, in the face of something that would make any grown man cower, Reimu's expression was stony and dead as ever.

"But you won't, will you? If you were going to kill me, you would've tried to do that in our duel." she stated simply. Sweat glinted in the moonlight on Remilia's brow; Reimu was seeing right through her. Her hands weren't just shaking from her injuries.. She was terrified. Even now, after the heated battle that Reimu had came out on top of, she felt a deep-rooted fear at the fact that she was holding a deadly weapon so near to the shrine maiden. In the end, her pride as a terrifying warrior and tyrant was dwarfed by the fact that she cared about Reimu. She just wanted all of this to end. Slowly, the lightning-like form of Remilia's Gungnir dissipated. The vampire's arms fell to her sides. She just couldn't do it. She couldn't kill Reimu. She knew all along, since this fight began, she couldn't. How disgusting was she? A vampire that was too afraid to take the life of what should be her sworn enemy.

"Defiance." spoke Reimu.

"...What are you talking about?" Remilia asked hoarsely. Her body was repairing her grievous wounds at such a rate that most of her energy was being used to do that. Standing up was becoming more and more difficult, and her words were labored as her eyes downcast scanned the ground in front and below her, unable to meet Reimu's gaze as she looked over the blood she had lost. So great was her daze, that she didn't initially realize the pain of one of Reimu's needles sinking into her: the shrine maiden had thrown it at her chest, aiming for the heart.

"Before we fought, you asked me what the new rule that replaced the spellcard game was." the shrine maiden said as the other girl let out a scream of intense agony, " I'm telling you what it is now: anyone, youkai or human, who defies the Hakurei Shrine Maiden is an enemy to the peace of Gensokyo. And they'll be dealt with." She got no answer. Remilia Scarlet fell forward, first onto her knees, and then flat on her chest. All motion, even the idle twitches and flaps of her leathery wings ceased entirely.

Before she had hit the ground, Reimu had already turned away to face the mansion behind her. It stood, black and imposing in the moonlight. She knew there were more inside; more that were no better than accomplices in this situation. And so, she began to solemnly walk along the path towards the entrance, leaving the vampire behind her in the bloody dirt. At some point, even recently, she would have been on the ground beside her. At some point she would be in tears at what she had just done. But that was then, and this was now. Stopping in front of the double-doors, she placed her hand against them and...

* * *

Alice, naturally, had been the first one to jolt up, clutching her blankets in her hand as the sound of what could have only been described as a massive blast echoed through the Forest of Magic.. Though it was clearly off in the distance, it still had quite a bit of noise to it.. Not to mention a bit of impact, as a short tremor could be felt running through the dollmaker's cottage. The noise had gone off in the direction of the window she was beside. Her eyes quickly searched outwardly.. But all she could see were trees.

"U..Ughn.. What was that?" Came Marisa's voice from the floor beside her. Alice had brought out a roll-up futon for the witch. She had sat up, looking a bit of a mess, her usual braid undone from her hair; she'd fallen asleep in her usual dress, a stack of books beside her. Alice really wasn't much better off, but at least she'd gone and changed into a pair of pajamas.

"I don't know for sure, but it sounded like an explosion. And it came from the direction of the frozen lake, which could mean..." She bit her lip. No, deep down in her gut, she _knew _that was precisely where it came from. And furthermore, she had a fairly good idea about what must have been going on there as well.

"...Do you think it's Reimu?" Marisa voiced her thoughts, more or less. As lazy and weary as she had sounded sitting up, she now sounded quite a bit more sobered

"I don't know, but if it is, this is bad. Very bad. Reimu's been insistent and pushy to everyone lately about what we should all do, but beyond that incident in the Human Village, it never turned violent. This.. Could change everything." Her voice was low, but she was already getting out of her pajamas and beginning to change into a dress, having little regard for whether Marisa was watching or not. She was far too distracted; the Youkai Mountain and Scarlet Devil Mansion have little love for their respective fashions... But if the mountain youkai saw that Reimu was openly assaulting other groups, she feared that they would have little choice but to react in kind to her.

Marisa, meanwhile, was much more focused on the here and now as she rose from the futon, slipping a pair of boots on, "We need to get over there quick. There's no telling what those guys are gonna do to Reimu if we just let them fight. Or vise-verse."

"I just hope we can, Marisa." The dollmaker sighed. Her eyes went once more to the window. On the horizon, smoke was rising against the pale, full moon.

* * *

Remilia had been holding back, Reimu noted; that was her failing, and it was what had lead to her ending up as she did. If her response to an enemy trying to slay her was to try and avoid hurting her, then what good was she? Sakuya, however, had no such qualms. That much had been apparent when she barged into Patchouli's library. The maid was standing, slim knives in between her fingers, pressed firmly up on her knuckles, in both hands. Behind her was the crimson-splashed form of Meiling, and Patchouli as well. The librarian appeared to be on the verge of collapse, that light still pulsing from her hands.

"You're trying to heal her?" The shrine maiden inquired icily. The slightest hint of bemusement was audible in her voice that earned a frustrated glare from Patchy, "Good luck. I didn't go easy on her."

"Where is the mistress?" Sakuya demanded, ignoring the shrine maiden's taunt, already in a combat pose.. One hand held low at her waist, the other folded in front of her breasts. With a simple flick, those knives in her grasp would go flying, Reimu knew. And she knew that she couldn't underestimate them. Her mouth opened to respond to the maid, but there was a hesitation. What was that? What was that feeling, deep and guttural, of self-doubt and shame? Why did it still hurt to say what she was about to say?

But moreover, why should she care? She closed her eyes and nodded once: "She's dead. I killed her."Sakuya turned a horrible pale at those words... And then, the front of elegance that she had been holding since Reimu had last met her at the shrine began to crack. Those uninterested eyes began to spark and burn with a terrible hatred, that nonplussed expression of neutrality curving into one of vicious cruelty.

She didn't even turn to the pair behind her as she spoke, eyes locked onto Reimu: "Keep healing Meiling, Patchouli. And you.. You.. Have lived long enough, Reimu." The raised arm flicked forward, and the maid's throwing knives streaked towards her, the four fanning out into a wide angle. Reimu darted upwards, flinging herself over the weapons and responding with a pair of her own sealing needles. Of course, Sakuya was far too fast as well. She advanced as they flew over her with absurd speed, and both sets of projectiles missed clearly. But while Reimu had to ready more needles, Sakuya still had another set in her free hand. This time, she casted them upwards, directly towards the path Reimu was flying at. Was that it? She was trying to lead her shots? Her flight path halted, and she flew straight towards.

Of course, she was taking the maid too lightly; it was a stupid mistake. All the while, Sakuya had been advancing towards her. From seemingly out of nowhere, she had produced another knife.. And as Reimu landed back onto the ground, she was now in range to use it. There was a rather uncharacteristic snarl, and and the glinting steel blade being slashed downwards all in the span of just half a second. The shrine maiden barely had time to react, holding up her harai-gushi wand and stopping the weapon, but even then, Sakuya's assault was not finished as she thrust one leg forward, kicking Reimu squarely in the stomach and sending her whistling through the library air.

When Reimu hit the hard wood, there was a solid _thump. _Her arm shot out, a pair of ofuda flung from her hand.. But the energy-filled talismans were clear misses, the arc all off due to the impact, leaving Sakuya entirely unimpeded as she bounded over where her foe had landed, tossing another fan of knives. This time, all Reimu could do was attempt to roll to the side.. But she wasn't fast enough. The shrine maiden let out a sharp cry as one of the long blades sunk into her raised forearm; it wasn't an intentional shot... it was entirely by instinct that she had held it up to protect her face. Without it, she knew, she would have been dead.

Either way, it seemed she was as good as much at this point; snagged out of her rolling, the maid now had her held by the collar of her shirt. A knife pressed against the side of her neck, threatening to finish the job that the first that hit her had failed to do. It hung awkwardly from her flesh, thankfully having entirely missed the bone. Tears ran down her face, not out of sadness or fear but out of pain, and that icy expression she held earlier had dissipated entirely in favor of twisted lips. Sakuya, however, still held the same fury that she had had before. She spoke to Reimu through clenched teeth, the death of her mistress having pushed her far beyond any sort of reason: "When I'm done with you, I'll feed what's left to the crows. And even then, that won't be enough. Nothing will ever be horrible enough to make up for what you've done!"

"It.. It doesn't feel right, does it? Someone you love dying...? It.. It makes you want to do... Things." The shrine maiden spoke with something resembling empathy, but the comparison between she and the maid only earned her getting pushed down harder against the floor of the library. Still, now Reimu was tearfully grinning through the intense pain "D..Don't worry... Y-You won't have to worry about it soon enough."

"What are you..?!" As Sakuya began to question the girl, she heard whistling behind her. There wasn't enough time to react, not even to freeze time, as the two ofuda that Reimu finished their rotation and came slamming into Sakuya's back with explosive force; they didn't miss. They were homing. The impact pushed the maid forward, back arched and likely severely damaged if not broken, before smashing her into the heart of one of the library's massive bookcases. It teetered forwards, then backwards... And then, finally, in one short, horrifying moment, came slamming down on top of Sakuya's crumpled form. Dust spewed up like a sick round of applause for the shrine maiden's performance... And all was still.

"Defiance...Gets you nothing but death." Reimu hissed as she slowly stood on shaky knees. Her hand moved to the hilt of the knife that her foe had pierced her with, grabbing onto it and yanking it out hard; it hurt even more than it had going in, and she was brought almost to her knees with the pain. She was losing blood... Something was going to have to be done about that wound, and soon. But for now...

Her head turned to Patchouli. She had expected rage.. Even sadness, or fear, from the normally sedated magician. However, from the looks of it, she likely didn't even realize what had transpired; the anemic girl was hunched over Meiling, looking to be moments away from falling to pieces, a wilted flower waiting for the inevitable stiff breeze to finish it. This would be easy prey, Reimu thought. Half-heatedly, what remained of her sanity reproached her for that... But it was a weak little voice that amounted to little. This was all becoming so easy... Every time she saw someone fall, it became that much more simple and natural.

A long, slender needle slipped from her sleeve and into her hand. But as she raised it to toss, the doors of the Voile opened wide.

* * *

**This chapter took awhile to come out, huh! I sort of lost my muse... Well, insofar that I wasn't sure how to carry on, even though I knew what I wanted to do. I tend to overthink things... This chapter isn't my best, I feel, but it's more a functional one than anything. getting all the pieces into play for the next one.**

**This chapter is also the first with what I'd consider a genuine fight scene. I'd love feedback for it, if I can get some. I did my best, though things happen so rapidly I have a hard time writing fight scenes out. Any tips for that, or for my writing in general, are welcome! Thank you for reading, and please leave a review!**


	9. Confrontation in the Voile

When Marisa and Alice came into range of Scarlet Devil Manor, the destruction was already readily apparent. The entrance looked like a massive fist had plowed angrily into it, and where massive wooden doors once stood now a smoldering, uneven crater. The front courtyard was covered in visible blood puddles here and there, gleaming in the moonlight (though there was a distinct and strange lack of any sort of bodies...) That would have been enough for the witch to have seen; she felt a burning ball of emotion welling in the pit of her gut with just that, and undeniable sense that something was terrifyingly wrong. But when she and the dollmaker opened those doors, the display within almost made her lose her balance.

Reimu was standing poised to strike down Patchouli; the shut-in magician girl was still sitting, shakily continuing to heal the gatekeeper.. Though it appeared she was going to give out at any second from the effort of the sustained spell. Her eyes were half-lidded, though they were focused on the shrine maiden in front of her, as if they couldn't see anyone or anything else happening in the room... And perhaps she was the better for it; if she could see the current state her library was, in, she might have dropped dead without Reimu's assistance. Books were lying scattered in all directions, and three shelves had been flat-out toppled... Neither Marisa nor Alice knew that Sakuya lay beneath one of them.

"What the hell did you do?!" Marisa was naturally the first to speak, those bright golden eyes regarding Reimu with absolute fury from beneath the brim of her steepled hat. It was taking every ounce of her strength to keep herself from, as she did with so many other things, simply skip the questions and launch herself at the other girl based on the evidence placed in front of her. Alice,meanwhile, briskly moved past both Marisa and Reimu, over to the table. Reimu made no attempt to stop her, allowing her to move over to Patchy and Meiling.. Holding out her hand and beginning to cast her own healing spell. Patchouli, truly exhausted, let out a rattling noise of thanks before slumping forward, going unconscious from the strain she had been putting on her weak body.

"What made you honestly think it was a good idea coming back to see me again after last time?" Reimu hissed. The facade of stony emptiness she had been building up prior to this cracking just a bit in the face of the two intruders. She wasn't talking to Marisa, however; she was looking in the exact opposite direction of her, straight at Alice's face. Alice didn't look up, a stern expression on her face as she watched what Patchouli had seen; Meiling's wounds were opening back up every time they closed. However, it was slowing down now... Whatever technique Reimu had used was beginning to wear off.

"Turn around and look at me, Reimu!" Marisa snapped at the shrine maiden. Where did she get off ignoring her presence, now that she'd finally came and confronted her! Yet, even then, she was staring daggers at Alice. The dollmaker was illuminated in the soft blue glow of healing magic, looking up at both of the other girls as she worked.

"Reimu... I know you aren't going to believe me, and I know you don't want to admit it, but that _is _Marisa. I swear." Alice said. Reimu's cold expression remained unchanged, however, eyes moving between the two dolls, Shanghai and Hourai, that hovered around her, before going back to her.

"Marisa is dead, and what you've done is disgusting. I'll never forgive you for it... Not that I'm going to have to." She spat back.

"What the hell are you two talking about?" Marisa grunted, abruptly feeling left out of the situation. Something was going over her head here, at least to some degree. She had recalled that when she had first gone to confront Reimu, she had accused her of being a "disgusting puppeteer." But why?

"She thinks you're a doll, Marisa." Alice answered quietly, confirming the witch's suspicions. Marisa scowled.

"Why the hell would... What? You don't have a doll that..." She tried to think of a way to phrase her question, but words were failing her. She just didn't really get it. However, under this questioning, Alice cast her gaze downwards, away from both both of them.

"When.. When you were gone... When I thought you were dead, early on, I... I tried to get you back. My plan was to make a doll in your shape, and then retrieve your soul and put it into the doll. I didn't know if it would work or not, but..."

"You did _what?!" _Marisa returned with an incredulous bark, which made the dollmaker cringe. However, Alice steeled herself and continued.

"But I didn't get the chance to finish the experiment. I got everything ready... I had the doll made. I even went to your house and gathered your clothes to dress it in." That explained the missing clothes from when Marisa stopped by the place a few days ago. And she could also see where this was going.

"And you couldn't find my soul, right?"

"That's right... You can't find the soul of someone who isn't dead.. I'm sorry I didn't tell you, Marisa." She said, still downcast, "..But that's the truth. That isn't a doll, Reimu. That's Marisa." She was standing in place as she spoke, still insistently healing Meiling. And yet, even then, Reimu was regarding her with a dangerous stare, almost as if she was expecting some sort of dangerous trick out of Alice at any moment, "I'm sorry.. I'm so sorry. I was so caught up in grieving and making that doll. I just wanted her back... And.. And I ignored everything you wanted. I wasn't there for you. But please... She's here now, Reimu. This can all end. You've done enough. Leave them alone."

Reimu tried to keep her visage of stoniness as she listened... Marisa frowning all the while, looking between both girls.. Broom held firm in her hand, ready to attack if Reimu showed any sign of doing so. The shrine maiden could feel sweat gathering on her forehead, and the weight of the situation was beginning to build on her shoulders. Was Alice telling the truth? Was Marisa alive? Was what she was doing wrong? These questions and more began to flood her thoughts... Questions she thought she had banished for good before coming here, in the name of becoming the hated-yet-dutiful defender of Gensokyo's well being... Questions she would banish once again. She finally responded: "It doesn't matter."

"Of course it does!" Marisa stomped the floor, beginning to storm towards Reimu, "I'm here! I'm back! Everything is going to be okay if you just-"

The shrine maiden didn't give her a chance to finish, thrusting a palm forward. Marisa saw the ball of light exploding forth from it far too late, and she was struck squarely in the chest, tumbling backwards head over heels, her hat flying off in a manner that probably would have been comical if all the rolling the impact caused her to do didn't look so painful. She finally ended up on her hands and knees a few feet away, panting, one hand pressed against her ribs; it felt like someone had hit her in the chest with a brick. It wasn't lethal.. But it hurt like mad.

"Marisa!" Alice shouted in horror at the display... But the witch was quick to look up at her, shaking her head.

"I'm fine." she said quickly, not at all sounding as such. The words had a hard time exiting her mouth; Reimu had sufficiently knocked the wind out of her. It wasn't a lethal hit, but rather one that was just tauntingly painful.

"It doesn't matter, because she's lying. I saw you... Her.." Reimu spoke, quickly correcting herself with an irate wince, not wanting to make any sort of acknowledgment that Alice might not be a liar, "Fall into the flames. I saw you die. You're not real, whatever what you were... And even if you weren't.. What would it change?"

Reimu was slowly walking towards Marisa now, the witch having gathered herself, breathing deeply to try and regain the air that had been knocked out of her. Slowly, danmaku began to appear around the shrine maiden; a large, circular pattern of sealing amulets that began and ended on either side. At least four layers of them, made up of what must have been at least 300 projectiles.. Appearing just like that, the sacred weapons blazing a terrible red that was more reminiscent of hellfire than anything. It was brutish and immediate, not something Reimu would have used in a spellcard battle.. But this was no spellcard battle. Marisa knew all of those things were dangerous, and waiting to fly.

"I've made my choice. Even if you are real, I've decided; there will be no more threatening of the innocent in Gensokyo. Not by the youkai, and not by their servants... And to accomplish that, I need to be strong. I need to make a stand. I need to protect everyone."

"You call murder_ '_protecting people?!'' " Marisa snapped back.. She was already sitting on her broom, mini-hakkero in her hand, ready to fight, staring down Reimu as the shrine maiden continued to approach. No part of her wanted to except for the most animalistic section that was crying for vengeance, but if she had to, she would be ready. "What you're doing isn't noble, or strong.. Or even _good! _It's insane!"

"No." Reimu quickly responded, that slow and grinding approach she had been making coming to a halt, "What's insane is the way we've has been living up until now...And if I have to destroy every force that wants to threaten the lives of humans in Gensokyo, then so be it. Doll...Ghost... Whatever you are... Disappear."

And then, the sealing amulets began to fly. Marisa kicked off the ground backwards, flinging herself backwards into the air as a large wave of projectiles just barely flew by her feet. Now clutching onto the handle of her broom, Marisa quickly scanned over her friend-turned-foe as another mass came flying at her; Reimu wasn't fighting as she often did. In spellcard duels, the shrine maiden was agile, and moved around a lot, making herself harder to hit to balance for the fact that she had constructed her attacks into beautiful, complex waves to accommodate for the rules of engagement. Right now, she had no concern for any of that. She stood stationary, not even taking flight to match the witch. Her attacks weren't made with the intent of the game either.. They were made with the intent to kill. Precise, directed lanes of fire continued even as Marisa began to move to respond, sometimes clear misses, other times much closer than she was comfortable with.. But every time, undoubtedly, smashing into the scenery. The already-damaged library was rocked with Reimu's attacks, the sealing amulets hitting walls, windows, and bookshelves with explosive force. Wood and paper flew around in a careless flurry.

Inwardly, Marisa wanted to scream down at her; a demand to stop. There were times in the past where she had actively somewhat wished for this; a battle all about life and death, rather than beauty. Brute force, rather than complexity... And yet, now, confronted with it, it was so different. She was terrified. She was terrified of dying, terrified of those things blazing around her head that could kill her at any moment. This was awful, a perversion of something she hadn't realized how much she _truly _enjoyed until being faced with the alternative.

And yet, she couldn't shoot back. She knew she couldn't. Even if she hadn't heard Yukari's words, she could tell by looking at Alice, who had stopped healing Meiling; the gatekeeper had finally stabilized, the deadly divine energy that was tearing her apart from inside delivered by Reimu's needles finally having expelled all its energy. She was in the perfect position to blast the stationary Reimu from behind.. And yet she made no effort. She simply looked up at Marisa with a look of fright and concern. Neither of them could hurt Reimu, even if the opportunity presented itself; they had to believe that there was a way to make her stop.

And so, Marisa slowly flew her way closer; it wasn't an easy feat, as Reimu was changing her shot pattern; large, swiping horizontal masses of seals were bursting outwards from around her, trying to knock her out of the air like a pesky fly. A straight approach would have been total suicide without firing back, so Marisa was flying in a large inwards spiral towards the shrine maiden. She could see her quite clearly down below, even in the spooky lightning of the library; if not for the fact that her glowing projectiles illuminated her, then the small fires that were beginning to pop up where her shots found home did. She was.. Stone-faced. Inhuman. Terrifying. Where was the light in her face? That lazy expression that lit up in the heat of battle in the form of a smug knowledge that she was going to come out on top? Who _was _that person down there, and how could she have been hollowed out so thoroughly? The only thing was was for sure is that she was getting closer.. And closer.. And...

The witch's broom suddenly whipped itself to the side beneath her; she had gotten careless. Was that all it took, now, when confronted with real life-or-death fighting? One mistake, and Marisa abruptly found herself flung from her broom as one of Reimu's amulets struck it. She could see it go flying off into the distance like a javelin, no longer having its owner to steer it correctly. Below her, Alice screamed in horror, and Reimu was silent. Time seemed to slow down as she flew forwards. This was what it was like, she remembered; this was the same as that fight with Utsuho. The same feeling of helplessness. She was soaring past Reimu, towards the massive exterior window that looked towards the courtyard outside, which she had been passing as she flew. She would break through it, she knew; she would fall, and it would be a fall that she wouldn't survive. That was it; it was a good try, but that was it. She could only hope Alice would escape in time, as her hand gripped her mini-hakkero tighter.

_Wait. Wait wait wait._

_The mini-hakkero?_

"MASTER SPARK!" Marisa bellowed. The world's pace seemed to correct itself once more as she whirled around to face the window, holding the mini-hakkero in both hands. She only had a second or two, but that was all she needed as the core of the hexagonal weapon began to crackle moments before expelling the massive blue energy beam it was so well-known for. Marisa's momentum halted mere inches from the window that had exploded with nary a shard of glass due to the sheer heat of being so close to the point-blank of the attack, and once more she began to be pushed back towards the inner-area of the library.. Back at Reimu. The shrine maiden stood stunned in place as the witch came flying towards her... And promptly smashed into her shoulder first. Reimu was instantly floored and slid back along the wood a short distance with a sickening sound, while Marisa bounced, tumbling over to the table where Meiling lay. And then, both were still.

Alice hurried over to Marisa's side, almost falling over in the process, quickly examining her: breathing, but out cold. Alice knelt with a grim expression, hiding back tears as she quickly scoped over her friend's body. she'd been wholly certain that the witch was about to die when she saw her speeding for that window... For once, she was glad that she underestimated her ingenuity. Of course, as she quickly discovered, that ingenuity appeared to have broken her arm when she had impacted Reimu. The dollmaker exhaled in frustration; she could be healed, but she didn't have it in her at the moment after struggling to patch up Meiling. It would have to wait until she was out of here, and away from Reimu...Wait, Reimu?

The shrine maiden was on her feel; her legs were wobbling, but she still held onto her gohei wand tightly, glaring at Alice. One of her arms seemed to have been badly scraped after sliding along the floor, blood dribbling out from one of her long sleeves. Her chest was heaving; the human missile that had struck her had really taken it out of her.

"Stop. Just... Stop, Reimu." Alice murmured.

"...This is.. All..." the shrine maiden was stammering, out of breath, hurt, and seemingly on the edge of sanity. She gave up, simply finishing with: "I'll kill you."

"_N..No.. You won't.." _Came a soft voice from off to the side, almost in the form of a wheeze; Patchouli Knowledge had risen from her chair, looking just as shaky as Reimu.. She clearly wasn't in a fighting state either. Nevertheless, she slowly made her way behind Alice and the fallen Marisa. Reimu looked at them with the utmost skepticism.. And possibly even pity? Both magicians had expended a great deal of their powers healing Meiling. Even in this state, she was rather sure she could kill them both. At least, she was, until yet another voice joined theirs; one she was not at all expecting to hear.

"Leave my house." was the simple command it spoke. With a combination of surprised and anger, the shrine maiden whipped around to look at the entrance which Alice and Marisa had come in earlier; standing in it, bathed in the light of her energy spear, was Remilia Scarlet. Her clothes were tattered from their earlier fight, and her pale white skin was swamped with her own blood from wounds she had incurred.. And yet, she looked a great deal less injured than any of the others in the room. It occurred to Reimu that she must have missed Remilia's heart... It also occurred to her that she ought to curse her own carelessness. Again, she snarled: "Leave my house, and never come back. I hate you. I'll never forgive you, Reimu."

The shrine maiden was outnumbered, and injured. There was no way she could win. And yet, nevertheless, she almost instantly reached for her deadly sealing needles, a pair held at the knuckle as she normally did... But why? Even she was questioning herself almost instantly after taking them in her hands, dropping them on the floor. At that point, even Reimu could see something was wrong; she was about to face certain death, was being given a chance to escape, and without hesitation jumped at the opportunity to keep fighting. It wasn't an urge to protect anything; it was blood lust. Sheer blood lust. Wordlessly, she turned away from the others, and took flight, passing out the window that Marisa had destroyed with her Master Spark, and into the waning night. Alice and Patchouli watched with contempt, and Remilia with a complex expression that Alice couldn't exactly place. Angry? Or disappointed?

"Remi... Y-You're alive... She said..._" _Patchouli began, but did not finish, her wobbling legs giving out beneath her pajama-like robe before slumping down beside Alice, who moved to help hold her up, stringing one of her arms around her shoulder. The vampire quickly made her way to her friend, looking at the immense damage within the library. The tiny fires that had been started had mostly tapered out, but so many books were destroyed. The walls were torn to shreds with many holes looking into other rooms, or outside. Not only that, the gate guard and the annoying thief of a witch were badly injured... A chill suddenly ran down her spine. Someone was missing.

"Patchouli, where's Sakuya? I told her to take Meiling and find somewhere safe." Patchouli was breathing hard and looked to be on the verge of passing out once again, but even through that strain Remilia could see that she'd reminded the magician of something awfully unpleasant, "...Patche, say something!"

"...S-She..." She held up one wavering finger, pointing towards a fallen bookcase just a short ways away. Remilia bolted up as her fears were confirmed, dashing over to the massive shelf, beginning to heft on it... Actually making very impressive progress on what must have weighed several hundred pounds, her strength on full display. Alice waved her hand forwards, both of her dolls moving to Remilia's aid.

Beneath the shelf was a grisly sight; the elegant maid who had stood up to Reimu couldn't have been much anything else besides dead. She was crumpled grotesquely, her limbs twisted in a manner resembling Marisa's arm, but more severe. A pool of blood had spread out beneath her, staining the dark wood. Her eyes stared emptily at the ceiling. The dollmaker looked away, covering her mouth. Patchouli, too, felt her gaze slip away naturally from it. But Remilia fell to the floor, on her knees, so quickly that one might have thought someone had knocked her feet out from beneath her.

There were no tears as she put her hands beneath the still-warm body, holding her up... Looking into those open eyes for a moment, before she moved to close them. Her voice exited her lips like wind rattling out of a tomb, resigned and agonized: "My maid... My dutiful, elegant, perfect maid. You were right... I never should have left the house tonight, should I? And now look where we are... Patchouli's lost a library... And I've lost a head maid."

She laughed, but it was the most painful laugh that Alice had ever heard in her life, the voice of someone who was being torn apart from the inside. She would laugh for a short while, but it would kilter off and end with a pitiful shiver. Remilia Scarlet took her fallen caretaker's hand into her own, and squeezed it.

"I'm so, _so_ sorry. But I can never be sorry enough."

That night, a grave was dug in the courtyard of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Remilia did not leave its side until division was forced upon her by the sun.

* * *

**This was a very fun chapter to right, as sad as it was for me as I love Sakuya as a character. I wrote it over the course of quite a few days, but I powered through the last quarter of it tonight while listening to the saddest Touhou Piano arranges I could find.**

**And there's another chapter down. That's sort of the end of the first "arc" leading up to Marisa and Alice's confrontation with Reimu... But it's not over. We still have to figure out what happened to Marisa's lost year! And what about the mysterious new gap youkai that has plans for Marisa? Speaking of Reimu... What will become of her? And by extension, Gensokyo?**

**Things are coming to a head, and these questions will be answered soon enough. Stay tuned...**


	10. Moon and Star

"I don't need anyone no more. Never again." A young human muttered to no one in particular as she moved through the forests west of Hakurei shrine, known to many in the bordering human village as the Forest of Magic. It is a dark, strange area that is hardly the place for children. And yet, here she was; ten years old, and trudging through the confusing, misty maze of trees. Towards where? Well, truth be told, she hadn't thought that far ahead. Kirisame Marisa was running away.

Her long blonde hair, neatly kept, was a mess after sleeping beneath a tree last night. She was pretty sure there was still a bit of dirt in it, even after stopping at that stream earlier. And now, it was a sloppy, wiry bundle that would have given her mother a heart attack- no, no. Best not to think about that kind of thing. Best not to think about _her _and _him, _whose titles would not be named. She squeezed the strap on the leather sling-bag hanging from her shoulder the mere thought of the people she had run from, the meager belongings within shifting around inside.

"Nope... Nobody. Not a one." Marisa told herself again.

Ahead of her, the "path" she had been following (which was really little more than a steady walk between trees rather than any sort of real man-marked trail) abruptly ended; she'd reached a sheer cliff face rising upwards. There was no real way to climb this thing that she could tell, and it was quite tall.. Even taller than the schoolhouse back in the village! Mist swirled around at the base, lapping at its feet as it did everything in this strange mushroom-filled forest, a decent size break in the treeline spreading out around it as if they all wanted to give the stone some air. She huffed as her progress was halted, slumping forward.

"...Sometimes I sure wish I could fly." Marisa muttered. The little girl was fully prepared to stop and rest here for the moment, but she'd only just set her bag down in disappointment before she heard a voice out what seemed to be nowhere at first, causing her to snap it up and raise the mostly-empty leather sack in her hands as if it were a club to defend herself. She dug her heels into the dirt; was this what the villagers were talking about? Was this one of the monsters said to roam the forest?

"That's an odd wish, little girl."

Visions of terrifying youkai with long teeth and glowing eyes had been dancing in her head, and yet she quickly realized how silly it was to believe such rubbish once she figured where the voice had come from; just a short ways off to the side was the source of a voice. What she was a rather tall woman, who appeared to be in young adulthood... Twenty-four? Twenty-five? Something like that. She had long hair, green and silky-looking hair that was quite long, going past her shoulders down a ways towards her back. She was clad in expensive-looking clothes, a golden bow fastened at her collar, and an exotic hat of some kind on her head with an emblem of a sun on it. It was very odd, tall and pointy, and rather reminded her of pictures she had seen of witches and wizards in her storybooks back home.

"Most people your age would be wishing for a warm bath and a dry place to nap." the stranger said with a shrug. She had an odd, somehow jovial tone about her. She seemed quite friendly.. Though still, something _was_ odd about her, beyond being out here in this forest where people weren't supposed to: the mist seemed to rise up around her, covering her lower half in white wisps, "But then again, most people your age wouldn't be around this place either, I suppose. Right?"

"Um... Listen lady. I don't want no trouble." She responded. The woman snorted bemusedly in response, which actually made the girl rather angry. She was already on edge due to the senseless travel with less-than-ideal accommodations, so at a sign of what she took as the usual mockery, she balled her fists up, shouting: "Hey! You laughin' at me?"

"No, no." She waved her hand from side to side dismissing the notion, but not dismissing the grin on her face. "Not exactly, anyway. It's just.. The way you speak. It's very rough...I like it. It's cute." Cute_? _That was a new one. Normally she just got called a tomboy. The village boys would often try to act like she was one of them, just to infuriate her. Even her... Even the _ones who shall not be named _usually took issue with it.

"W-Well... What do you want then?" the girl asked, finally. The woman seemed to have expected this question, or perhaps simply been waiting for it. She moved forward, closer, which caused the little runaway to gasp; no, that wasn't fog. After the one she had been speaking to had breached the treeline she realized that it was quite different; there _was _no lower half. The woman's normal human body ended at the waist, the bottom a strange white whisp, indeed not unlike the fog, but it was more solid. As she moved, it flittered behind her, before coming to a stop and dangling beneath her like a ghostly tail... Ghostly. That was the word for it. This was no woman; it was a ghost.

"I don't want anything. You're the one that's wishing for things, aren't you?" She responded, but her question seemed to be forgotten almost as soon as it was done being asked.. Mainly because it was clear that the girl wasn't listening to her. The smaller one's jaw had dropped, and she'd taken several steps back, "Now, now. No need to be frightened. You were talking to me before you saw.. This, right?" She moved her hands down to indicate her ghostly lower half. Unfortunately, the young traveler was not going to have any of it. Already, she was dashing down the path opposite the woman, blazing along the side of the cliffs as fast as she could, bag left on the ground thoughtlessly. The girl ran as fast as her legs could carry her. She ran faster than she had run away from those bullies back in the village, faster than she had back home when she realized the sun was going down and she would be in trouble if she was caught out at night... Faster than she had out that door when _they who shall not be named _told her of what they had arranged for her to do in the next week, and how it was going to solve all of their money problems. After all, there was one thing worse than living in pain and unhappiness: not living at all.

Suddenly, the cliff face gave way, the wall of sheer stone halting and going inwards in what appeared to be a small area enclosed by the earth all around, though not on top. Marisa had not looked back the entire sprint, and she didn't intend to now; even if there was no one behind her, she whipped around and dashed into what essentially amounted to a clearing in the rocks. Skidding to a halt, her eyes shut tight and she leaned forwards, hands on her knees, breathing raggedly; she hadn't paced herself whatsoever, and it felt like her lungs were on fire. How long had she run in fear? Four minutes? Five minutes? Regardless, feeling as if she had escaped danger for now, she looked up... And her heart sunk at what she saw before what was easily the most grotesque thing that she had ever seen in her young life, the young girl found herself surrounded by...

"_O-Oh no.._"

Bones. Thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of bones, all scattered around this dark little grotto. They lay spread out like carpet anywhere one could endeavor to step, and in some cases, raised up in great sloppy mounds like sickening bleach-white anthills. The worst thing, however, was the fact that it was easy to see from all the hollow, broken skulls amidst the great treasure trove of remains that many of them had at one point belonged to a human.

A horrified yelp escaped from her lips; was this the home of that evil ghost woman from before?! Had she fallen right into her trap?! She pivoted on her heel and began to try and dash back the way she came, but ran headlong into something that did not move... Or more aptly, someone, as she found when she fell backwards. She fell into the ground, landing in the bone-carpet, the fleshless white debris rattling awfully beneath her. She looked up, one eye clenched shut due to the pain in her rump, expecting to see that green-haired phantom; but that wasn't what she got. Instead, yet another stranger was staring at her.

This one appeared much younger; possibly around her age, or younger, wearing a plain black dress with a white blouse beneath it; in all honesty her clothes weren't remarkable, though they looked a bit out of place compared to what many wore around here. What _was_ strange was her eyes; they were glowing a terrifying crimson red. She could only stare into them; they seemed so big, so wide and wondering... Strange, dark, cloudy shapes seeming to flow through them as she smiled a creepy smile down at her. All at once, she realized that this too must be some kind of youkai she had been warned about.

"Hello there~ What are you doing in my home~?" She asked in a sing-song voice, hands behind her back, playfully wobbling back and forth. If it was anyone else but this girl, it would have been cute. The runaway's lips pursed; her name? No one had bothered to ask that before now; she hadn't spoken it in at least two or three days now, actually forcing her to pause and think about it.

"I... I... Um, I... By accident. I'm here.. By mistake.." She stammered in response, scrambling to get to her feet. As soon as she put her hands down on the bones beneath her though, she writhed in absolute disgust as she realized she was taking a handful of human bones in her hands. Still, she tried not to scream. Somehow, screaming felt like screaming was going to set off this frightening girl... And then, who knows what? Yet, even without that scream, by the time she had looked up, she had somehow changed her attitude entirely. That smile, wide and innocent was gone... Replaced by a smirk that reminded her of a snake.

"Is that so?" she asked with a great dose of sarcasm loaded into her words. Her lips peeled back, a tongue slipping out of her mouth. It was an awful sight; it must have been twice as long as a normal human tongue, and it made a round trip along her lips before being yanked back into her maw abruptly, "But maybe you're wrong. Maybe you were meant to come here?"

"N-N-No. I-I'm not... I didn't mean to.. I was running, and I..." She protested, but her voice was quiet and hoarse, barely amounting to a squeak.

"I'm _so _hungry... I haven't eaten all day. And you showed up at just the right time~" she reached out her hands, those vivid red eyes going wide once again. All around her, the girl was aware of the very atmosphere of the forest getting darker... Closing in, choking out what light entered the grotto from above. The girl's fingers twined around her shoulders, and when the runaway tried to shove them off, they only clamped down harder as the frightening and hungry Youkai pressing down on her prey with remarkable strength for her size. Soon enough, Marisa found her back firmly pinned to the ground. Above, a voice so cold and lacking any sort of humanity or empathy hissed: "I hope you don't mind... But even if you do.. I can't help myself. I need to _eat."_

Trapped beneath the youkai girl, she could only stare up aghast as her mouth seemed to split and tear at the sides, her lips opening wide to reveal what looked to be several rows of razor sharp teeth glinting in the growing darkness all around her. At this point, Marisa had almost resigned herself to her fate. This was the end of her life. She'd be joining the mounds of bones all around her, and there was nothing she could do about it...Well, except one thing. She screamed at the top of her lungs: "SOMEONE HELP ME!"

The horrible monster atop her made an inhuman noise somewhere between a laugh and a snarl, leaning its head back, and preparing to bring it back forward to bite down on Marisa's face... But that chance never came at all. The runaway girl didn't realize precisely what happened at first from her position below as she saw the beast flung off to the side like, but her question was rather quickly answered by the sight of a long wooden staff held above her where the monster had been. The stunning weapon, adorned with a heavy looking crescent moon on its end, looked to be made of a combination of both wood and gold. In shock, she followed its length with her eyes off to the side, towards the end of the clearing; it was being held in the hands of the woman before, standing tall (well, really she was cheating; she was floating a short ways off the ground) with the staff in her hands. She did not return Marisa's stare, only fixated on the youkai, who was slowly rising up off the ground. Her mouth seemed to have reassembled itself back to its normal state, but she now wore an awful visage of rage.

"Look around you. Don't you think you've eaten enough already, little creature?" The woman spoke harshly, raising her staff back up and leveling it on her shoulder. It was at that point she offered her other hand to Marisa, giving her a glance that was full of sympathy. At first, she was still hesitant to have anything to do with the ghost... But, at the same time, hadn't her life just been saved by her? Carefully, she reached up and took it, feeling herself pulled on as she was raised back to her feet. Quickly, she moved around behind her, hiding behind her cloak.

"..Enough..? I don't think I can ever eat enough.." The youkai spoke balefully. Though she once again looked like a little girl, Marisa could hardly look at her like that anymore after seeing her mouth split open like that. Furthermore, things were only getting worse as once again the creature began to skitter towards them. She moved in an awful, inhuman way that almost seemed like it didn't make any sense; fast, and yet her visible movements were incredibly slow. It was like she was walking, and yet racing forward at the clip of a particularly fast runner. Mid-movement, she dropped down onto all fours, skittering as if she was some sort of spider, with no clear effect on her speed. And yet, the woman who had apparently taken up the position of her guardian appeared to be entirely unperturbed.

She raised her long staff up above her head, and the darkness that had smothered the graveless graveyard was abruptly banished as light exploded from it. As the youkai leapt up in the air, her mouth splitting horrifically wide once more in what Marisa could only assume was her true appearance, an explosion of colors burst forth from the ghost's weapon, slamming into the youkai and forcing her to give out a terrible shriek of anger and pain. Orbs of light slammed into her, more rotating around her in all directions and following suit. Her body twitched and flailed with each impact, before finally one last hit pushed her forward, sending her sailing over the sea of bones and into one of the great piles of skulls sitting deeper into her sanctum. Human remains flew in all direction like stone before a wrecking ball... And finally, there was utter stillness.

Marisa was dumbstruck; was that... Magic? Real, genuine magic? She'd heard of it, but she'd never seen it in person before. It was virtually silent, and yet it was clear that there was so much power behind it. She was in such awe that she almost didn't realize that her savior had begun to move forward, hovering neatly over the scattered bones over to the pile where her fallen foe had landed, reaching in with one hand into the decimated-but-still-present mound and pulling from it the fallen youkai, holding her dangling by the back of her blouse. She appeared to be unconscious; her face had slacked and returned to what to the uneducated would appear to be that of an innocent little girl of around nine or ten.

"As dangerous as you are, I'd normally let you run amok... It would be rather funny. But it's clear you have no sense of your own, if you're willing to attack _me_. Only hunger is in that little brain of yours. So let's help you out a little..." the ghost spoke quietly. She reached down to the side of her fancy dress, hand slipping into the sole pocket she had. From it, she pulled a bright red ribbon that reminded Marisa to an uncomfortable degree of the cloudy crimson eyes she'd been staring into moments ago. Very carefully, she tied it into the youkai girl's hair, before setting her down on the ground. It was around that point that her eyes fluttered open, looking around.. Directly at Marisa. She was fully prepared to turn tail and run when she saw this.. And yet, something was different. Those eyes didn't glow. They were a red, but a dull brick-red entirely different from the imposing cloudy things she had seen previously. She wore a rather pouty look of annoyance on her face... Or was it pain?

"Uurrgh... my head." She spoke. It was an entirely different voice; somewhat like the sing-songy tone when Marisa had first heard her speak, but yet, somehow much more genuine-sounding. It was then that she looked up to the much taller ghost girl, who was looking down at her with one hand on her hip, heavy staff resting on her shoulder once more, "Wait... _My _head? Who am I? Hee hee... I have no idea~"

"You? Your name is..." The ghost paused for a moment, before a thin smile spread across her face, "Rumia. Rumia, the darkness youkai. You really don't remember?"

"...Oh. Oh, that's my name? Is that so~?" She giggled and nodded. Marisa didn't know whether to be more afraid or confused; it seemed like the youkai, who had now been dubbed Rumia, was almost like a shell of what she had been. Similar in some ways, and yet not at all the raging monster she had been moments ago. Whatever that thing that had been put on her head was, it seemed to have subdued her almost entirely.

"That's right. My friend and I had come to visit you, is all. I suppose we should be on our way... Isn't that right?" she looked over her shoulder at Marisa, who nodded vigorously after a brief pause, "Well then. It was good seeing you, Rumia. Have a nice day! And remember, stay away from the human village like you promised!"

"Like I promised!" Rumia called as Marisa and the ghost walked back out the same way they had come, leaving Rumia behind. The little youkai girl gazed all around her... So many bones... Where did they come from? And why... Why did they make her tummy rumble?

* * *

Once they had gotten a sufficient distance away, Marisa finally asked what was on her mind: "What did you do to her?"

"That wasn't just any ribbon I put on her head. It was made out of a sealing amulet.. A very special one designed to pacify youkai rather than purify them. It drained her power _and _her memory. She shouldn't be a threat to anyone with half a brain, as long as that thing stays on her head." The ghost explained with a little bit of a chuckle.

"B-But.. You're a ghost. Where did you get a sealing amulet? Isn't that a weapon to be used _against _ghosts?"

"I got it from a shrine, of course. And it's hardly going to hurt someone like me, you know. I'm honestly more fit to use it than the silly little girl living there right now." she scoffed, mainly at the thought of said silly little girl. Marisa, not knowing them, could hardly join in on the humor. However, soon after, she turned to the human: "You have an awful lot of questions, but I think it's my turn, isn't it? What's your name?"

"Marisa. Marisa Kirisame." Marisa responded, shrugging.

"Well, Kirisame Marisa, you don't seem to be quite as keen on running away from me anymore, do you?" She smirked rather snidely. The ghost could be friendly, Marisa noted, but she had a somewhat snarky side to her as well. That was fine, though.. The snark seemed to be good natured.

"You saved me. I guess that means you're a nice ghost." She huffed. Older, more religious people would probably contemplate such a thing just a little bit harder but Marisa was a child. She saw directly to the heart of the matter, and to her it seemed pretty simple, "So what's your name, anyway? I can't just call you 'ghost lady' can I?"

"I wouldn't call me nice.. Or a ghost, either, for that matter. And it's still my turn, you know?" She swooshed in front of Marisa, halting her walk abruptly, grinning down at her as she ignored the question of her own identity, "What are you doing out here?"

The hesitation on the girl's face was clearly visible, her bright eyes darting away from her savior. She felt a little bit uncomfortable, at least at the onset of thinking about whether or not she wanted to admit exactly why she ran away. But as the gears in her head grinded away, eventually, an answer that was a little bit more substantial came to it; why not? She was going to have to eventually tell people someday, right?

"I ran away from home." She said, looking back up, seeming confident in herself once again. The ghost chuckled softly, hand over her mouth, which almost earned her another shouting from Marisa. The smaller girl was particularly sensitive to mockery from all the bullying she'd contended with, so he was on a bit of a hair trigger. Nevertheless, she quickly cut her off before the aggression could come.

"I'm not laughing at you. You simply reminded me of doing the same thing when I was little... And in the same forest, even." Marisa noted that when the woman said "when she was young," there was really no way to know when that was. She was a ghost, so that could have been fifty, sixty, even a hundred years ago despite how she looked, "But that's really only half an answer. What's got you angry, hrm? Tired of going to class? Tired of eating greens? A silly, human worry I'm sure."

Marisa bit her lip, still on that hair trigger.. But once again, managing to hold her tongue in. She had recognized the ghost's snark as good-natured previously, and it was still as such right now; she just hadn't had a chance to explain herself. And maybe what she ran away for _was _silly? Maybe she just was a dumb kid. Maybe she just was a dumb human. Either way, she had always listened to her heart throughout her young life, and she didn't plan to stop now. Finally, she answered: "My parents... They want me to get married to some noble guy.. I never even met him. They just wanna fix their money problems, so I ran. Came here."

She kicked some dirt irately, but had noticed that the ghost had not answered. When she look up, she saw that the smile had been wiped off her companion's face; it had been replaced with a softer expression, her eyes looking her over with a mild expression that belied some odd intensity just below the surface that she could almost feel being cast on her. Her first reaction was that she said something wrong. Unfortunately for her, there would be no answer for her as the ghost seemed to skip her reaction entirely.

"Mima." She said, and when Marisa cocked her head and raised an eyebrow, she returned to smiling, "My _name. _You asked it earlier. It's Mima. It's nice to meet you, Marisa." She extended a hand to the little girl, but not to help her up this time. Rather, to shake it. Marisa took it, clasping the larger palm with her fingers. Her touch wasn't cold at all, like would would expect from a spirit... Heck, at least you could touch her, period! She had half-expected Mima to be non corporeal the first time she had grabbed it.

"It's... Nice to meet you, Mima. Thanks for savin' me," she responded. The ghost simply shrugged.

"I don't normally help humans... I suppose it was a moment of weakness. One that's still going on. Which brings me to my last question: You don't know where you're going, do you?"

"...Nope. Not really. I was just gonna... I dunno." Marisa bowed her head a little in embarrassment. She certainly wasn't going to lie, because even if she tried she had no idea what she would say in response.

"Then I suppose I'll have to take care of that. Unless you don't think you could stand living with a ghost, that is? I have a cottage in the woods from... A long time ago, that I've been at least trying to keep in working order."

It.. Sounded like a good deal, actually, ghost or not. Perhaps not exactly what she had been expecting, but she hadn't expected to meet Mima either, for that matter. This was the first person that had offered to help her at all throughout the short journey she'd had since she left home, "That... Sounds good, but I don't have anything to pay with, y'know...I don't really have much at all. Just some clothes 'n' stuff.." Well, she _hoped _she did. She had dropped that bag when she had gone running from Mima earlier.

"You don't have to pay me... You don't have to do anything." She smiled.. But that smile slowly turned into a smirk as the ghost turned her back, beginning to hover whispily through the air, back towards the place where they had met, in the direction of the cottage, "But I have a feeling you'll want to."

"Whatcha mean?" Marisa frowned, hurrying alongside her. She didn't want to get left behind and get lost again in this forest, after all.

"...What if I said I could grant your wish, Marisa?" Mima asked, looking over her shoulder.

"My...Wish...? Wait." She remembered the first words spoken between then when they had met, and her jaw almost dropped, "You... You mean you can teach me to...?"

"I can teach you a lot of things, if you're willing to learn. And as long as you really think you don't want to return to the place you ran away from" Mima waved her hand, finishing up her sentence for her without really answering her question. If Marisa understood correctly, and she was rather sure she did... She was being offered a chance to learn magic. It was all so sudden, it had left her speechless. She had read about wizards and witches, humans capable of casting magic spells that they had learned. Part of her had believed they were just fairy tales; humans capable of standing toe to toe with youkai? Unless your were a priest or a shrine maiden, the idea seemed almost absurd to her.. And even more now that she had seen that one from earlier up close! And yet, she'd seen it on full display from the ghost earlier.

"So... If I go with you... I can fly" Marisa finally asked in conformation as they returned to the spot where she had originally fled. Any fear she'd held around Mima was gone. She was at ease, even despite the terror of just a few minutes ago; it almost felt like.. This was meant to be. Any notion of returning to _they who shall not be named _was gone.

"Flying is the easy part." Mima smirked, putting a hand on young Marisa's shoulder, "Getting there? That's what's hard. But, if you ask me, it's also what's really fun."

Things were going to be okay. Things were going to be all right. After all, Marisa had a friend now.

* * *

Marisa stirred from her deep sleep, rubbing her eyes. It took a moment to figure out that she wasn't in that forest, so long ago; no, far from it. She was in a comfortable bed with a lovely red shroud over it, the light of early dawn beaming in from an un-curtained window across from her. This was Scarlet Devil Mansion. She sat up in bed; one of her arms was in a sling, as if it had been broken, and yet she had feeling inside of it; it must have been magically healed, something that had been done about a dozen times over the course of her life (she could be pretty reckless on that broom.)

And yet, she didn't feel that normal refreshed feeling she normally got after arcane body repair; she felt horrible. It wasn't a physical pain, but rather that awful feeling one got when they were pulled from a dream of happy times back into harsh reality. Of course, it was at that point when she realized she wasn't alone in the room. At either end of her bedside were two figures; Patchouli and Alice were both slumped over on her bed, sound asleep. It looked like they had been there all night, healing her dutifully.

"...Geeze." She clicked her tongue in a scolding manner. Of course, she meant nothing negative by it. It was her way of handling her own feeling of weakness. She laid her head back onto the pillow, looking up to the ceiling. Slowly, positive feelings were beginning to seep back inside of her. After all, when she saw both of them, something had occurred to her; Marisa still had friends. And as long as they were alive, she would always have them.

And in the end, how much else did you really need?

* * *

**This chapter was originally meant to be a short intermission, believe it or not.. But I ended up having **_**way **_**too much fun with it! Hope you enjoyed it, it contains a lot of my own version of events never really explained in Touhou's sparse canon, so I hope I did an acceptable job with my own spin on the mythos!**


	11. Changes

After the fateful incident with Reimu in the library, Marisa and Alice stayed in the Scarlet Devil Mansion for several days. There was no request or confirmation that that would be what was happening as there normally would be, it simply came to pass and no one raised an argument to it. After all, who would stop them? Meiling had no say, Patchouli was happy to have them (as was Flandre, who had slept clear through the fight in the mansion's cellar). As for Remilia, she hadn't emerged from her chambers for more than a few minutes since the incident. The witch and dollmaker had been worried, but Patchouli had told them that they likely couldn't help, and that Remilia needed some space. They complied uneasily.

By the third day, however, Marisa already felt like she was going insane. Patchouli and Alice had both been spending an enormous amount of time researching, which she quite understood the necessity of. They were primarily delving into counteraction against whatever type of attack Reimu had been using since she began to openly attempt to exterminate Youkai. Even Patchouli, who had lived well before the period in which youkai hunters had ceased using lethal techniques, had never seen something quite as vicious and deadly as the wounds that the sealing needles Reimu was utilizing were causing. While most injuries born from divine energy tended to burn or even heavily wound youkai, it was often difficult to successfully kill one without great effort on the part of the aggressor; meanwhile, the shrine maiden was, judging from Meiling's wounds, able to cause quite potentially lethal damage with only a few properly landed attacks. The only reason that Remilia had been spared had been because of the incredibly potent healing abilities of vampires, and even _she _had been rendered to a state right on the precipice of death after a short altercation.

They were making excellent headway together, as would be expected of them. Marisa had helped them during the first two days, and they had made quite a bit of progress. However, by the third day, the witch began to note that there was a problem that was arising that she simply couldn't deny, one that was quite indicative of an insurmountable weakness on her end: the fact that she was human. Alice and Patchouli (Patchy especially) were quite used to working incredibly long hours. As youkai, time seemed to feel less vital to them. At the point where Marisa would be passing out face-first into whatever tome she had selected, both of her friends would be working just as hard as they had been when they had began.

As much as she wanted to help, she simply couldn't keep up. Also not of much help was the fact that she was, well, Marisa Kirisame; being brash and compulsive weren't her only two most known traits. There was also a certain, inescapable impatience. The feeling of being cooped up in the mansion had eventually begun to screw with her head. Normally she would be flying out around the village and its surrounding area to see her friends, or exploring the Forest of Magic for potion ingredients. At this rate, she was afraid that she was going to go mad. She _had _to get out of this place, but to do that she had to figure out a reason. Easy enough.

"So, yeah. I need clothes." Marisa said with her arms crossed. Alice was peering up at her from behind a book in a manner that reminded the witch of Patchouli more than her usual self. That image was, of course, aided by the fact that Alice herself had borrowed one of the former's gowns to change into. The two were roughly the same size, though Patchy was just a teensy bit wider, which gave the outfit an even more baggy appearance on Alice. Marisa, however, was the odd one out. She was shorter than Patchouli, and taller than Remilia and Flandre. "I think you have them. Right?"

At Marisa's request, Alice's mouth curved into a somewhat odd shape. It wasn't exactly a grimace or a look of displeasure, but more close to something that regarded discomfort, "Well... Like I said, I got them because I was trying to, um... Well.."

"I know, I know." Marisa rolled her eyes dismissively at Alice's immediately defensive reaction, forcing an irate huff out of her. Nevertheless, she had no ill intentions, adding: "And I don't hold it against you. It was... Weird, and all, but, um... It wasn't like you meant harm."

Taking a moment, Alice composed herself once more, reaching up and moving a stray bit of hair out of her face. The pink sleeve of her borrowed gown slunk down her arm, and she quickly moved to adjust it before finally answering, "None at all. I... I just... I don't know. I lost control." She wanted to add "_I seem to be doing that a lot lately," t_o the end of her explanation, but she couldn't bring herself to say it. The only hint that Marisa got was a forlorn glance out the window of the room they had been sharing. The witch wanted to say something.. But she didn't know how much longer she could stay. Finally, she held out her hand; Alice reached into the pocket of her robe and unearthed a rather simple brass key, which Marisa took; the key to her front door, "The clothes and doll are in the sitting room at the end of the hall."

The witch put away the key for safekeeping, the action giving her a sense of elation; she was free for now. She could worry about giving assurances to Alice later; for now, she just needed some fresh air.

* * *

Marisa gripped her broom in a manner that almost seemed protective. It had handily been spared damage after being flung away from her during the fight with Reimu, but that was hardly surprising to her. After all, the magic broom had taken far more nasty impacts in the past (not to mention having been used to whack belligerent youkai in the face occasionally, as well as having blocked at least one sword stroke as well.) Unfortunately, her hat was not so fortunate, an errant bookcase having fallen on top of it, crushing the age-old gift flat beyond continued wear. While it wouldn't be easy to replace, it certainly was preferable to something more vital being damaged.

By the time the witch had gotten out of the manor, her mind had become completely focused around one thing: flight. She wanted to fly. She wanted the feeling the wind all around her, pushing against her as her broom careened through it like a spear hurled from the fist of a titan. Whenever Marisa was grumpy, upset, or in general had anything nagging at her then she would often resort to aimless flight at unsafe speeds. What better way was there to clear one's head?

And yet, something held her back, as she begun to mount her broom. Someone, in fact; her leg had lifted to stride over the shaft of the broom, but had quickly lowered as she caught sight of Hong Meiling just ahead of her. She hadn't actually ran into the guardian of Scarlet Manor's front gate at all during her stay. Meiling only came in late in the night to her knowledge, and seemed to go straight to her quarters, wherever those might be. She stood looking down with her back turned to the witch, her long scarlet hair swaying in the soft breeze that blew through the area. It was less the appearance of the taller girl that stopped her, however, and more the fact that she was standing in front of the grave that had been dug in front of the mansion for Sakuya Izaoyi.

It was a simple little deal, a small plot of land with an etched wooden cross plunged into the soil. Marisa thought it strange at first that a vampire might mark the place of the dead with a cross, but Patchouli had assured her that all folklore about crucifixes harming vampire was mere western superstition. Nevertheless, Remilia had also apparently told Patchouli during one of the magician's visits to her room that she was going to replace that simple cross with a statue at some point with a statue, when the opportunity presented itself. Prior to all of this, the witch had always thought of Remilia as a domineering, pushy brat. However, the realization of how grief-stricken the little vampire was over losing Sakuya had really driven home how wrong that she had been on that front.

"Oh." It was the gatekeeper's voice that caught her attention, and she looked back up once more. Meiling had turned to face her, one hand on her hip, "It's you. I was wondering when you'd come out here." Marisa was quickly confused by the youkai's words; she had been expected? Meiling seemed to notice it, though, rolling her eyes, "You're the only person who hasn't visited the grave yet."

"I.. I am?" Her thoughts immediately turned towards trying to work out how Alice could have possibly found the time to get out here, let alone Patchouli who never even seemed to leave her library except to sleep. However, even in her head Marisa realized how selfish and stupid that sounded. She quickly added: "...Visiting graves isn't really my thing. Sorry."

The gatekeeper breathed through her nose once in a rather dismissive manner. The change in Meiling was apparent to Marisa even from this short span of time; normally she was rather lackadaisical and not all that serious. When pulled into a fight she'd put on a good show, but seeing as how she wasn't exactly the strongest youkai around, that didn't last long. Regardless, she turned back down to the plot where the maid slept; "Do you ever wish you could try something over?"

By now, Marisa had come up to stand beside Meiling. She looked down at the grave in front of her; truth be told, she hadn't ever been to one... At least, not for the purpose of respecting the dead. Even when she had heard that her parents had passed on, she never thought to visit them one last time where they had been buried. All at once, an awkwardness filled her to the brim. She could think of nothing else to do except stare down at grave as she conversed: "What do you mean?"

"I mean what I said, try something over after the moment's past." she responded, kneeling down to the ground and pressing her hand softly against the flat soil. A watering can sat beside the grave marker, and the ground looked tended to; Meiling must have planted flowers, "Something little, like not doing something really stupid... Or even something big, like this."

"... I can't say I really have." Marisa said after a thoughtful moment of silence. Visiting graves weren't her thing just for that reason; it brought up memories of the past. Things that you couldn't do different, words that you couldn't take different. To the witch, the only sensible way had always been forwards, even if the destination wasn't exactly clear.

"I'm jealous." Meiling said with a bitter little chuckle, before standing again, "You know why Miss Remilia keeps me around as a gate guard, Marisa?"

"You keep the small fries out, right?" The witch answered.. And then realized it likely would have been better if she had stayed silent, however. She had figured that out shortly after meeting Meiling in the incident that had introduced her to the Scarlet Devil Mansion in the first place; the gatekeeper wasn't really meant to be a true guardian of Scarlet Devil Mansion. How could it? Meiling wasn't particularly strong, compared to someone like Reimu... Or dozens of other Youkai that the witch could think of. Meiling stood so tall, and had quite a bit of visible muscle at her midsection and on her arms. She was an amazing martial artist that could likely bring Marisa down rather easily in hand-to-hand combat. But when danmaku came into play, she was often rendered rather useless. It was jarring, though, to know that she herself realized that. Already, Marisa could see where she was going.

"What if I was more than that? What if, instead of just eventually accepting that, I actually got stronger? What if I could have stopped Reimu?" Meiling half-whispered. Marisa had never seen her like this... And felt compelled to place her hand on the taller girl's shoulder. It was a stiff motion that looked rather silly, with Marisa only coming up around Meiling's chest. Still, she closed her eyes and smiled in a clear appreciation that made Marisa feel horrible for not coming to see her sooner. Patchouli had been upset, too, but as detached as Patchy was, she had gotten over it after a short while. Meiling, meanwhile, seemed to have had a special bond of some kind with the maid.

"You can't blame yourself, Meiling. It's not like-"

Meiling cut the witch off, shaking her head and looking back to her for a moment, "I don't. Because I can't know. Because I'll never know, so I can't dwell on it. Still.. That doesn't stop me from wishing, you know? Visiting graves might not be your thing... But you should give it a try. Because some day, it might be too late to do it. And you'll wish that you stopped and took the chance to say goodbye." Marisa stayed silent, squeezing Meiling's shoulder gently.. But eventually, she let go of the gate guard and took a few steps back, mounting her broom. Being here had made her realize something; she had more to do than just collect some clothes while she was out here.

When she left, the gate guard was still gazing down at the grave in front of her. Marisa didn't know how long she would be there, but she would never chide her for the regret she felt. Not with what she was now feeling herself.

* * *

"Marisa's still not back." Alice's voice had broken what had been an hour-long silence between she and Patchouli. They had moved up into the guestroom where she and Marisa had been staying, sitting at the pricey-looking glass table in the middle of the room, two cups of steaming tea sitting between them.. Or, at least one. Alice had gone through three at a rate that had left Patchy quite surprised that she had yet to excuse herself to use the facilities.

As composed as the dollmaker was, Patchouli could tell that that rapid rate of tea consumption was from nerves over the witch being gone for so long. The sun had long-since set over Gensokyo and the pale moon had inched its way up to replace it. The distance between Alice's house and Scarlet Devil Mansion was really only about twenty minutes at the Marisa's typical speed.

"Relax." Patchouli said, adjusting a pair of reading glasses perched on her nose that aided her weak eyes in these long reading sessions, "As impulsive as Marisa can be, I doubt that she's gone and done something like challenge Reimu on her own. More likely, she just got distracted by something particularly tempting to steal along the way."

Alice didn't seem particularly convinced, however, resting her chin on her palms and gazing out the window at the weak, waning light of the moon that was staring down at Gensokyo. It was a cloudy night; it looked as though it was going to begin to rain at most any moment. She knew that Patchouli was being perfectly logical in her assessment, as Marisa didn't want to fight Reimu now any more than she had before she'd been pulled into conflict with her a few days ago. And still.. She just couldn't shake the feeling that something was _wrong._

"_..._You really care a lot about her, don't you? You haven't even glanced at your book for about an hour." Patchouli murmured. It was a simple observation, but it was one that made Alice wince; was it that obvious? She looked up across the table at the magician to find her wearing a thin, barely-visible smile on her face that the magician wore on the rare occasions that Alice could think of when she was actually amused by something. Regardless, being seen through so easily made Alice blush and look away once more.

"I'm not saying that like it's a bad thing, Alice."

"No, but you're saying it like you find it funny." The dollmaker said with a hint of coldness in her voice, trying to regain her composure.

"I do. But that's only because only a year ago, I thought that neither of you would ever honestly be more than just passing acquaintances that somehow managed to put up with each other for the sake of coexistence," She shut her own book, taking one last sip of the tea that Koakuma had brought them, emptying the small porcelain cup before setting it back down, "And now I see that I was wrong. Interesting."

Alice gave Patchouli a rather scolding glare, not really appreciating being viewed as a science project. However, at the same time, she didn't really know how to respond, because everything Patchouli was saying was right. When she had first met Marisa, she frustratedly put up with her; after all, they hadn't been introduced on the best of terms. Furthermore, their personalities were so vastly different from each other. Marisa was free-spirited and chaotic, while Alice was orderly and restrained. And yet... Losing her made her realize how much she truly _needed _Marisa. In the most selfish of ways she dwelt not on the fact that she was gone, but on the realization of how terribly lonely she felt without having Marisa around to pester her on a near-daily basis. Even with her other friends around to visit occasionally, there was a void inside of her which drove her so deeply into despair that it seemed to consume the will to see everyone else and replace it with a desperation to see Marisa again. And that was why...

"I'm going to go find her." Alice finally spoke a rather encapsulation of her feelings, pushing with her hands on the table as she rose out of her chair. She flicked her fingers, and both Hourai and Shanghai rose from their spots on the nearby bed, coming to hover around her... Clearly wearing expressions of excitement that they were actually going to be able to get out and do something after spending so long cooped up in this mansion as well.

"Don't take too long." Patchouli responded, not questioning it or even commenting on what she felt was absolute irrationality; it was a foregone conclusion, "I feel that we're very close to figuring out how to resist the techniques that Reimu have been using.

"I won't. And besides, if we have Marisa here, I figure that we'll have an even easier time. I'll see you when I get back." the dollmaker said. She didn't linger long, departing from the guestroom rather quickly. Left alone, Patchouli poured herself another cup of tea from fancy, jewel-spattered teapot sitting on the center of the table.

"If I didn't know better... I'd say..." The magician whispered quietly to the empty room, that little shimmer of a bemused smile still on her lips. However, she felt no need to finish her words, because she _did _know better. She opened her book back up, and resumed her study.


End file.
